Maintaining the Authenticity of Co-Researcher Voice Using FPAR Principles

This descriptive paper addresses the issue of co-researcher voice suppression, among others, through disclosing my process of presenting the data of a participatory community-based research project at an academic conference. The project in discussion investigated the perceptions of women, who live in Toronto public housing, about what makes a community. Feminist participatory action research (FPAR) and narrative methods are briefly reviewed in this paper as they are influential to the trajectory of presenting this data. The voices of the women who engaged in the project of focus were heard, without compromise, vis-a-vis the approaches and method we used to conduct our research and to communicate their stories to the conference audience. As a doctoral student researcher, I aimed to present this project at the conference in a way that aligned with social justice principles of FPAR, particularly the notion of “power-with,” as discussed by Ponic, Reid, and Frisby (2010). In disclosing this process, I hope to provide insight, in a clear and accessible fashion, to others who will conduct and present participatory research in similar settings.