Jane Addams Progenitor of Immersive, Participatory, Community-Based Research: Correcting Attribution Oversight of Participatory Research Method

Abstract: This study serves to correct an oversight that attributed pioneering researcher Jane Addams’ (1860-1935) methodology to other scholars.  Today, Addams’s participatory research is widely accepted and used.  Participatory Research is alternatively referred to as: Community-Based Participatory Research, Participatory Action Research, Participatory Sociology, Proactive Community Based Research, and Participatory Qualitative Research. Addams developed her methodology during cultural work among Chicago’s immigrant communities. The method for this study is theoretically guided by textual analysis and archival research. The data is from archival historical sites, extant literature, news sources, biographies, and Jane Addams numerous publications.  As we strive to attain equality and equitability in our research and in our teaching, we must strengthen the presence of researchers and educators who were canonically marginalized. We do so by providing information that properly attributes strategies, methods, or theories to the rightful progenitors.