Over the past few decades a major paradigm shift has occurred in the field of social science research mainly in the use of Participatory Action Research (PAR) as a methodological tool (Lewis, 2001). Yet, social scientists rarely using this approach in qualitative research specifically in youth studies, despite its inherent advantages. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the use of PAR methodology in studying Nepali youth engagement in community based on seven young researchers experience as co-researchers.

Drawing on research undertaken on the youth community engagement in the post-disaster context, this paper identifies the numerous methods that can be applied within PAR to understand youth engagement in community. However, using PAR is not without its challenges. This paper will provide an overview of some of these challenges, focusing on research design mainly formulating research question, data collection and data analysis. Substantial amounts of time need to be devoted from the beginning to the end of the research. This paper will be a reflection of our experience of using PAR in Nepalese context especially for studying youth community engagement in 2019, arguing that the choice to conduct series of actions/reflections or using a combination of data collection methods in the data collection process required considerable amount of time and vigilances using a combination of data collection methods.

Keywords: Participatory Action Research, Nepali Youth, Community Engagement,

References: Lewis, H. M. (2001). Participatory research and education for social change: Highlander Research and Education Center. In P. Reason, & H. Bradbury, Handbook of Action Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice (pp. 356-362). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.