The Participatory Action Researcher: A Starling in the Murmuration

This paper explores how a participatory action researcher supported transformation across first-, second-, and third-person inquiry levels, informed by social complex adaptive systems (SCAS) theory. Drawing on a participatory action research (PAR) project in a paediatric ward, we describe how change unfolded at personal, interpersonal, and organisational levels. Using a “thinking-with-theory” approach, we analysed narratives as critical friends. We use the metaphor of a starling in a murmuration to describe the researcher’s role: not in control but subtly influencing direction by alternately following and bending the existing interaction patterns. By initiating overlapping circles of interaction, she enabled the emergence of interference leading to improvements at the ward. We conclude that the PAR researcher seized opportunities to act as a messenger for workplace issues related to belonging and authority. This way she paved the way for direct interaction between professional silos on the work floor and parents. Addressing these issues released the energy among nurses and physicians in the research team to engage in constructive conflict. From this conflict, initiatives emerged, interfered, and transformed ward practices. By enduring the discomfort of participating in constructive conflict, alternating between yielding and confronting connection, PAR researchers can influence transformation without controlling it. Our findings contribute to action research theory by demonstrating the usefulness of SCAS theory in revealing patterns and interconnectedness of first-, second- and third-person inquiry, and to SCAS theory by showing how desires for belonging and authority drive cross-professional interaction.