The text of three papers are presented. The first, by Alma Ada Flor, focuses on the question "What is participatory research?" It is suggested that participatory research enriches the knowledge of participants and opens up new topics to them. The nature and theory fundmental to participatory research and the relation of participatory research to critical pedagogy are described. It is suggested that participatory research and critical pedagogy share the goal of facilitating the ability of the students to become hereos, that is, protagonists of their own lives, and to be aware of this protagonist role. Students become authors, generators of text, creators of the written text of their own history and, also, they have an opportunity of seeing themselves as researchers and teachers, as people who have knowledge that can be shared with others. Next, two distinctly different uses of participatory research are examined. The first, presented by Cynthia Petersen, describes the use of participatory research in the high school classroom. The second paper, by Constance Beutel, narrates the use of participatory research as part of the Self-Directed Education program within the corporate setting of Pacific Bell. (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse on Literacy Education) (GLR)