A Personal Conundrum

Hi Sheila,
I decided I had better get a start on this week's topic. We both must be suffering a bit of the winter blahs as we tend to "talk" to each other before this point each week. I look forward to hearing about your experiences and your "take" on this week's assignment.
I found Chapter 7 an easy read but became somewhat confused when trying to determine which of the research designs, Action, Participatory or Critical fit my Critical Research question, "How do I improve parental support, of struggling students, with their home reading program?" I decided to develop a design which would be possible to implement, and then attempt to determine which design seemed to suit it the best. Well, that turned out to be more difficult than I expected. I was caught between action and participatory research for the following reasons:
Action includes these ideas
1. the researcher (me) is the facilitator
2. the results are intended for immediate use
3. the design is formulated while the research is in progress
4. the information collected is designed to bring about a change
Participatory includes these ideas
1. people from the identified group will assist in the research and will acquire knowledge from their participation
2. the researcher (me) plays an active part, that is I am involved in the discussions, etc.
3. the researcher (me) is immersed in the community/group to seek solutions
4. I am attempting to gather results to solve a problem
At this point, I felt that my design was some sort of a combination of the two, not knowing if that was a possibility, and decided I needed some clarification from Dr. Cranton. Interestingly enough, Dr. Cranton informed me that the distinction between action and participatory research is not always easy to distinguish and that there is a category called "participatory action research" which is a blending, or combination, of the two. However, Dr. Cranton feels my design is of the participatory type, considering points 1-4 above even though aspects of Action research are also present. I am surmising it is participatory due to all of the input I would be getting from parents. (participants)
Well, without providing you with my complete design, those are my discoveries and learning experiences for this week. I continue to read most posts made, in my section, and I consistently gain a better understanding of concepts through these posts and Dr. Cranton's clarifications and comments. It is exciting for me to be finding this course actually fun, especially after being worried about being able to understand the content. I guess this just goes to show us, as educators, when learning is fun it becomes more interesting to the learner and the challenges become ideas to work through, not give up upon.
Looking forward to hearing from you. I know you will have great ideas to add and I always look forward to hearing your point of view as well as about your experiences.
"Talk" soon, my friend,
Catherine