Problematic participation: reflections on the process and outcomes of participatory action research into educational inequalities

This paper reports on the process of participatory action research from a three-year project to co-create ideas to reduce educational inequity with young people funded by Erasmus+. The project involved 10 academics and 50 university students from Norway, Denmark and England who co-researched 200 young people’s experiences of educational inequity. The process of participatory action research was challenging but rewarding for its potential for social justice. The participatory process used and the difficulties encountered are identified and discussed in this paper for the benefit of future research. The co-created output from the research, the Wellbeing, Education, Learning and Development Model (WELD) is provided as an example of the potential of action research to inspire multi-level social change.