Methods Fair

Delegates join Methods@Manchester in May for a one-day conference to explore research methods across the humanities and social sciences.

2027 Methods Fair

The Methods Fair is an annual one-day event organised in collaboration with Methods North West. It brings together researchers and PGRs from across the region featuring a keynote, talks, posters, and hands-on workshops. 

This years Fair “Methods for a Better World: Social Responsibility, Innovation, and Impact” will take place on Wednesday, 26 May 2027 on The University of Manchester campus.

The Fair's keynote address will be delivered by Dr Sandra Ajaps, Senior Lecturer, Manchester Institute of Education (MIE), The School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED), Faculty of Humanities, University of Manchester.

Suggested reading

  • Ajaps, S. (2026). Decolonising Environmental Education Pedagogy: A Participatory Action Research Approach. Education Sciences, 16(2), 199.

Attendees will also have the opportunity to participate in a variety of workshops run by experts from across the Methods North West partnership, as well as engage with lightning talks, posters and a chance to visit the University's Data Visualisation Observatory.

Keynote

Researching With, Not On: Participatory Action Research, Decolonisation, and the Possibility of a Better World

What does it mean to conduct research for a better world? What happens when we move beyond researching on people towards researching with them? What kind of research relationship makes meaningful impact possible?

Using these questions as a starting point, this keynote presents Participatory Action Research (PAR) not simply as a research method, but as a way of rethinking the relationships between researchers, participants, knowledge, and action. Drawing on my work on decolonising sustainability education and, in particular, the Decolonising Environmental Education Pedagogy (DEEP) project with Nigerian secondary school teachers, I will explore how participatory approaches can challenge extractive research traditions and create spaces for different forms of knowledge to shape research and practice.

We will consider the relationship between PAR, decolonisation, Indigenous and local knowledges, and sustainability education, while also addressing the tensions and challenges involved in participatory research. We will also think about who defines research problems, whose knowledge counts, who interprets research findings, and who ultimately benefits from the research process.

Rather than presenting PAR as a universal solution, the keynote will invite researchers to think critically about the relationship between methodology, power, responsibility, and impact. It will conclude by asking what it might mean to design research that is not only methodologically rigorous, but also relationally accountable to the people and places with whom we conduct it.

Workshop

Who Owns the Research? A Hands-On Introduction to Participatory Action Research

This practical workshop introduces researchers to the principles and possibilities of Participatory Action Research (PAR) through interactive activities. Participants will explore the differences between researching on, about, and with people; examine how power operates throughout the research process; and practise transforming conventional research questions into questions developed collaboratively with research partners.

Drawing on examples from a decolonising environmental education research project, participants will engage in exercises on question-setting, stakeholder perspectives, and power mapping before applying these approaches to their own projects. They will consider whose knowledge is privileged, who shapes research decisions, and what actions research might generate.

The workshop will also explore PAR’s ethical and practical tensions, including representation, knowledge ownership, disagreement, and institutional constraints. Suitable for researchers new to PAR and those with participatory research experience, the session offers a practical framework for assessing PAR’s relevance and aligning research with social responsibility, even when PAR is not the chosen methodology.

Bio

Dr Sandra Ajaps is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the Manchester Institute of Education (MIE), University of Manchester. Her teaching and research explore how education can contribute to ecological and epistemic justice through inclusive, context-sensitive pedagogies, sustainability competencies, decolonial approaches, and the recognition of Indigenous and local knowledges.

Sandra’s work focuses on the relationships between knowledge, power, participation and social transformation, with a particular interest in Participatory Action Research (PAR) as an approach to challenging extractive research practices and creating more collaborative, contextually relevant, and transformative ways of producing knowledge. She is particularly interested in supporting researchers to think critically about whose knowledge counts, who shapes the research process, and how research can become more accountable to people and places towards a sustainable future.

2026 Methods Fair

2025 Methods Fair

2024 Methods Fair