The Faculty of Da’wah and Communication (FDK) at UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta held a training session on Participatory Action Research (PAR) in the Meeting Room on the second floor of the faculty building on Thursday (2 July 2026). The event, attended by lecturers, aimed to strengthen the implementation of community engagement that positions residents as both subjects and strategic partners in the process of social change.

In his opening remarks, the Dean of FDK at UIN Sunan Kalijaga, Arif Maftuhin, emphasised the importance of community engagement that is structured and planned by the institution so that it aligns with academic requirements and the real needs of the community. According to him, the PAR model enables lecturers and researchers to break free from the constraints of rigid internationalisation standards and shift towards a more independent expression of scholarship in the field.

“We frame PAR as a structured form of community engagement. In this method, we are truly open to what is discovered in the field without having to experiment with anything that is coercive,” said Arif.

The PAR approach discussed in this training emphasises a paradigm shift from conventional subject-object research towards an equal partnership between researchers and the community. Researchers no longer position themselves as neutral observers who keep their distance, but rather act as catalysts and facilitators of social action.

Agus Afandi, an expert who served as a guest speaker at the event, explained that the success of participatory research is measured by the emergence of critical awareness amongst the community to understand the structures that oppress them. He emphasised that PAR consciously takes the side of marginalised groups in order to achieve social justice.

“Research is a systematic effort by researchers and the community to collaborate, the result of which is critical awareness and social change,” said Agus, a lecturer at UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya. He added that the research process must be able to break down mental shackles so that the community can take control of their own resources and lives.

Agus explained that, technically, PAR is implemented through a continuous spiral cycle of knowledge, starting from the stage of understanding the situation, planning ideas together with the community, carrying out concrete actions, and finally reflecting on the changes that have taken place. Through these stages, the community is actively involved from problem identification right through to programme evaluation, ensuring that the changes that occur are truly based on local capacities and needs.

In line with this, another speaker, Pajar Hatma Indrajaya, highlighted the importance of tangible interventions in every action research process. He criticised the tendency among academics to often stop at the stage of interpreting problems without providing concrete solutions for the communities being studied.

Pajar likened this approach to a ‘worm’s-eye view’, which requires researchers to interact directly with and experience the reality on the ground. ‘Philosophers can only interpret the world. But what matters most is changing it,’ said Pajar. Through such interaction, the resulting development programmes are no longer top-down directives, but rather the outcome of joint deliberation with the community.