Educational Action Research

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has underlined and exacerbated underlying fissures in health and social care provision worldwide. This special issue comes at a time when health and social care as a profession and practice is facing severe capacity, organisational and philosophical challenges.

We are excited to announce this call for abstracts showcasing debate, discussion, theoretical positioning, and accounts of participatory forms of action research that engage citizens and practitioners as co-researchers in health and social care. Participatory approaches are framed as those that actively and meaningfully involve those directly affected by the issue in the research process, either fully or at various points (Banks & Brydon-Miller, 2018). We consider shared and democratic decision making to be at the heart of participatory inquiry, whilst recognising the unique challenges this can raise.

This special issue is a tribute to the work of Professor Carol Munn-Giddings, an editor of the journal, Educational Action Research, for nearly 20 years. Her commitment to engaging citizens and practitioners as co-researchers illuminated how participatory inquiry can offer a way to increase transparency, accountability and equity in health and social care research. Her work has been at the forefront of putting lived experience at the heart of an action research approach to inform the development and delivery of appropriate health and social care services.

Professor Munn-Giddings has also been dedicated to educating future researchers and has supported many doctoral students in their application of participatory inquiry.

Authors wishing to contribute to this special issue should first submit an extended abstract.  The abstract should focus on one of the four themes detailed below:

• Co-research: lived experiences across the lifespan with a particular focus on involving young adults and older people directly in action research processes as co-producers of knowledge.
• Participatory Arts: research that explores how the use of participatory arts can improve wellbeing in a variety of health and social care contexts
• Peer support: research that elevates the experiential knowledge of those with a shared health and/or social care experience.
• Doctoral study: experiences of both students and supervisors in using participatory research across the continuum in completing doctoral research.

The special issue will have two sections:

1. Work that explores/illuminates/theorises/debates creative approaches to participatory action research in health and social care. We are inviting abstracts from authors who can speak with authority and depth on an aspect of participatory inquiry in health and social care in a way which will prompt interest, reflection and debate amongst readers. Authors whose abstracts are selected for this section will be invited to develop them into full manuscripts (see guidance details for full manuscripts in the section below).

Please be aware that an invitation to develop an abstract into a full manuscript does not guarantee publication in this special issue. Manuscripts will be subject to the review processes established for this journal and refereed in the usual way. This means that some may not be accepted and some may require revisions. 

2. Reflective pieces that explore navigating participatory action research in doctoral research. These can be either from the perspective of the doctoral supervisor or the doctoral student and will encourage the sharing of experiences and ideas. Our aim is to draw attention to the potential participatory action research offers health and social care doctoral research, an area that remains underdeveloped and which is of special interest for Professor Munn-Giddings. Authors whose abstracts are selected for this section will be invited to develop shorter reflective pieces on the doctoral studies theme (see guidance details for shorter reflective pieces in the section below).

Please be aware that manuscripts submitted for this section will be subject to a review process, established for this journal, that takes into account the more reflective, as opposed to research-based, nature of the piece. As with full manuscripts, the invitation to develop the article does not guarantee its publication.

Abstracts should:

• take a range of perspectives pertinent to at least one of the themes outlined above but the perspective of those with lived experience is essential for all
• be no more than 1,000 words (including references) for full papers and 500 words for reflective pieces on doctoral experience
• be precise and concise and clearly indicate the focus and positioning of the proposed manuscript. They should demonstrate up to date knowledge of the field and current debate in EARJ relevant to the proposed manuscript and be accompanied by the theoretical or empirical references that informed or inspired the abstract
• articulate the potential of the full manuscript to offer new insights/perspectives/theories/questions for debate that will be of interest to readers of this special issue

Full papers should be no more than 8000 words long, including referencing.

Shorter reflective pieces should be no more than 3000 words long, including referencing.

Abstracts and subsequent full papers must be submitted through the journal's online submission site, ScholarOne Manuscripts. Please select 'Participatory inquiry in health and social care' as the special issue title when submitting your abstract. Further guidance on how to present, frame and submit papers, please consult the journal's website.

Selection of abstracts

Selection of abstracts for development into full manuscripts will be undertaken by the three Special Issue editors based on a grid that reflects relevance to the topic area and the priorities set out above. Selection will take into account the need to have a balance of full and reflective pieces in the Special Issue. The editors’ decision is final.

The submission date for abstracts is 30^th April 2023, and shortlisted authors will be invited to submit their first full version for review by 31^st October 2023. Expected publication date for this issue is: January 2025

Instructions for AuthorsSubmit an Article