What is Participatory Appreciative Action and Reflection (PAAR)

Participatory and Appreciative Action and Reflection (PAAR) is a specific approach to learning, reflection and change. In this chapter we are going to identify the characteristics of PAAR approach within the adult learning context. Starting from the relationship between types of learning and types of reflection, we will analyze in particular the differences between critical and appreciative reflection and transformative and generative learning. Then we will explain some theoretical and methodological origins of PAAR approach: Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and Participatory Action Research (PAR) highlighting, in particular, four important shifts that characterize this approach: from deficit-based to strengths based discourses; from self-learning to collective learning; from a one way of knowing to a more pluralistic one; from cycles and spirals of reflection to reflective learning framework with specific intentions of learning, action and change. Finally, we will consider a possible coexistence of critical and appreciative reflection, generally considered antithetical, or difficult to put in practice, in PAAR approach.