Academics and Advocates: Using Participatory Action Research to Influence Welfare Policy

Abstract

University students on welfare, working with academic researchers, successfully lobbied for a state policy in Wyoming to define postsecondary education as work under the 1996 welfare reform law. This article describes the researchers’ use of participatory action research (PAR) in the policy arena. Consumer researchers are encouraged to consider using PAR to help make postsecondary education more available to low‐income parents. New PAR studies could assist low‐income consumers in analyzing the use of surplus welfare funds and new federal regulations, which now make postsecondary education a more viable option for state welfare reform policies.