Participatory educational research is generally characterised by a commitment to making a
difference in the lives of those who participate in the research and more broadly, to promoting
social transformation. This suggests a potentially fruitful synergy between participatory
educational research and the multidisciplinary body of academic work on generativity as a
human capacity that has at its core a desire to contribute to the well-being of others. As a
research team of teacher educators from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, we seek to add an
alternative dimension to current debates on participatory educational research by focusing on
understanding the ‘how’ and ‘what’ of generativity in a participatory research process. The
research question we address is: How does/can engagement in participatory educational
research facilitate generativity? While participatory research literature often concentrates on
collaboration between researchers and ‘researched’ communities, we are taking a reflexive
stance by exploring our own participation in our dual roles as university community members
and as researchers studying our colleagues’ experiences in relation to integration of Human
Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) & Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS)-related issues
in university curricula. We describe how our use of the visual method of storyboarding
facilitated insight into generativity in participatory educational research. Building on an earlier
concept of generativity, we identify and discuss significant generative features of participation,
playfulness, passion, and perspicacity in our research process.

doi: 10.15700/201412171320