Action research (Methodology)

The following text attempts, without pretending completeness, to analyze approaches to action research based on where and how they position themselves socially , on how they work, and on their actual basic distinctions. The result is a tentative typology presented roughly historically, which cuts through the many labels typical of current action research. Different approaches are useful, each for different purposes. Still, most circle consciously or subconsciously around some form of "practice" which works as a standard of measurement or quality criterion. The conclusion is that there is a certain sine qua non in the field of action research, i.e. a form "toward which, ways of doing things tend to evolve from a wide variety of starting points".

اقدام پژوهي شکل خاصی از پژوهش است که در دنیای واقعی مستقر شده است، بنابراین به یک شکل تحقیق از دنیای واقعی تبدیل می شود. اقدام پژوهي در مورد اقداماتی پر نفوذ برای اقدام اجتماعی و سیاسی است و سپس توضیح دادن به دیگران که چه کاری انجام داده اید، چرا این کار را انجام داده اید و امید دارید از انجام آن چه چیزی به دست آورید. ازآنجاکه اقدام پژوهي مبتنی بر اقدام و عمل است، اقدام پژوهي اغلب "تحقیق مبتنی بر اقدام" نامیده می شود. همچنین اغلب "تحقیق کارورزی" است، زیرا کارورزان آن را انجام می دهند. اقدام پژوهي شامل دو کلمه – "اقدام یا عمل" و "پژوهیدن یا پژوهش"- است و این دو به موارد مختلف اشاره دارند:
• "اقدام یا عمل" به آنچه که در بافت های مختلف خود انجام می دهید، از جمله بافت های شخصی، اجتماعی، سازمانی و سیاسی شما، اشاره می کند.
• "پژوهیدن یا پژوهش" اشاره به این دارد که شما چگونه آنچه که در بافت های مختلف خود انجام می دهید را پیدا می کنید، و چگونه راه هایی برای انجام بهتر آن می یابید.

The paper discusses the effect of epistemological-methodological turns in the social sciences,including education and cultural anthropology, on our decisions when selecting and applying methods of data collection and analysis in educational action research. My assumption isthat ethnographic description not only provides a starting point for most educational projects
launched within this design of intervention research but also appears as a ‘methodology’across their stages (in ongoing evaluation, which reveals what is happening and how it ishappening in the educational situation as the intervention is being carried out, and in the finalassessment, which determines the further development of the project). Given this, I focus on
how the decision-making and implementation processes (can) reflect the extension of various
forms of inquiry propelled by the refunctioning of ethnography in the aftermath of ‘the crisis
of representation.’ My explorations revolve around the notion of transition (from to): the transition
from Kurt Lewin’s model to so-called research/practice in educational action research
and the transition from description to performance regarding the application of ethnographic
methods in action research. This also involves redefining the field, expanding the classic
methods of data collection and analysis (= participant observation), and redrawing the status
of the researcher and other project participants, which leads to the shift from ethnographic
expertise to the ethnography of expertise.

Abstract
The article outlines ethical aspects of action research at two different levels: philosophical and ‘applied’. It also emphasizes ethical aspects of practitioner research and conventional social research tacitly implied in the relations between researchers and researched presupposed by the two approaches. Conventional research ethics is insufficient for grasping these aspects, since it is constituted within the relations assumed by conventional research. Conventional research ethics is also claimed to be a ‘condescending ethics’ unfit for action research because of its practice of ‘othering’ human beings as research subjects. This article interprets many ethical dilemmas experienced by action researchers as ‘othering-effects’, only to be overcome through the establishment of peer communities of inquiry among combined ‘practitioners-researchers-researched’. It uses a book on ethics and action research as a starting point for reflections about the very real challenges of creating peer communities of inquiry doing action/practitioner research.

Developing the professional competencies of future teachers is one of the main tasks of the faculties of education. The framework of the expected qualifications for ensuring the quality of education and professional development of teachers is determined by General Competencies for Teaching Profession in Turkey. Field teacher candidates are also required to acquire competencies specific to the field in the preparation phase of the profession. The field education knowledge competency of the History Teacher Special Field Competencies in Turkey includes the ability to associate the history course with the environment. One of the performance indicators of this competence is "organizing educational trips (to libraries, archives, museums and historical places, etc.) within the framework of the social activities regulation" The purpose of this study is to provide history teacher candidates with a performance indicator for organizing educational trips to out-ofschool learning areas in History Teacher Special Field Competencies. The study group of this research, which is designed according to action research, one of the qualitative research methods, consists of 72 history teacher candidates studying in the Pedagogical Formation Certificate Program at the Faculty of Education of a state university. The data of the research were obtained using a semi-structured interview form. Within the scope of the research, firstly, history teacher candidates were given education on out-of-school history education in the special teaching methods course. Afterwards, Anne Frank-A History For Today Exhibition was visited and the teaching designs and views of the history teacher candidates on how to use this history exhibition in their lessons were examined. According to the results of the research, it was observed that the education given to increase the proficiency of history teacher candidates for out-of-school history teaching was effective and, in this context, they were able to use the exhibition they visited in the history lessons they designed. In addition, historical thinking skills such as historical empathy, historical analysis and interpretation, historical comprehension and values such as respect for differences, respect for human rights and democracy, and tolerance are among the results of the research.

El artículo señala el fomento de la habilidad de emprendimiento en la educación normalista a través de utilizar el Aprendizaje Orientado a Proyectos (AOP), como una metodología activa, innovadora y potencializadora de doble alcance. En primer término, el estudiantado normalista de educación básica se preparará en emprendimiento, para afrontar los desafíos al egreso de un nivel educativo superior. En segundo término, como profesionista, formará futuras generaciones contribuyendo al desarrollo de una cultura emprendedora. Por lo que se llevó a cabo un proyecto de intervención a través de la impartición de un taller de emprendimiento, dentro del cual se realizó una investigación cuantitativa, bajo un diseño experimental, con un tipo de muestreo no probabilístico. Los resultados reflejaron evidencias estadísticas favorables al desarrollar la habilidad emprendedora basada en la metodología del AOP, así también cada estudiante normalista, dio cuenta del avance de su habilidad emprendedora, antes y después de la intervención.

This paper aims to present a methodology to establish and integrate formal sustainability control systems (SCS) into management control systems (MCSs). The innovative approach aims at contributing to the need for SCS integration by permeating and transforming MCSs so that positive and negative externalities can be internalized into the financial performance measurement and reporting.
In an exploratory process, control systems were closely connected with financial accounting within four interrelated – ecologic, social, financial and knowledge-related – dimensions. Building on the action design research, multicriteria key performance indicators (KPI) for these dimensions were developed. Four value-based small and medium-sized enterprises of the food sector developed KPIs in interactive and participative workshops and interconnected their own business model with their sustainability principles. Constantly revising conformity, specific S.M.A.R.T. goals and related activities were defined, thereafter being used for KPI measures and for input in financial accounting.
The workshop series reveals the importance of including relevant stakeholders, multiple feedback loops and permanent dialogue to abolish cognitive barriers. The approach enables the development of multicriterial KPIs and identification of costs and benefits for an integrated financial accounting.

This user-friendly book provides a step-by-step guide to using the five major approaches to research design: quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, arts-based, and communitybased participatory research. Chapters on each approach follow a unique format—they present a template for a research proposal and explain in detail how to conceptualize and fill in every section. Terminology commonly used within each approach is identified, and key moments of ethical decision making are flagged. Interdisciplinary research examples draw on current events and social justice topics. Unique coverage includes hot topics: replication studies and data sharing, tailoring proposals to different audiences, and more. The book also includes a general introduction to social research; an in-depth, practical discussion of ethics; and a chapter on how to begin a research study, from planning a topic to developing a research question via a literature review.

Includes Pedagogical Features 

In this paper I examine how the use of Indigenous digital storytelling (DST) within the framework of Indigenous research methodology, allowed Indigenous women to share their health stories in a safe and respectful context. This decolonizing methodology allowed for self-representation that challenged stereotypes and allowed Indigenous women to prioritize their own social and community needs and to protect their identities and cultural values in the process (Iseke & Moore, 2011). The digital storytelling participant interviews, which is the data this paper is based upon, reveals several key aspects of conducting culturally relevant and ethically sound DST with Indigenous women including: findings and discussion on the process of DST, and the Indigenous knowledge translation (iKT) event, Legacy: Indigenous Women’s Health Stories. In the last chapter, I will situate myself within this re-search  and share my self-reflectivity through Absolon’s (2011) Petal Flower framework starting with “The Flower Centre: Self as Central” to the Indigenous research process (pp.67-69). I will also highlight my “relational responsibility” to my co-creators – my continued advocacy for Indigenous women’s health using their digital stories - and how I included them in this process as much as possible (Gaudry as cited Strega and Brown, 2015, p. 256).

This paper presents an evidence-based model (the I3E model) for embedding education for sustainability (EfS) within a higher education institution. This model emerged from a doctoral research that examined organisational learning and change processes at the University of Southampton to build EfS into the university curriculum. The researcher aimed to learn from real practice through acting as a facilitator for curriculum development in EfS within an interdisciplinary group of academic staff members. A critical friend position was also acquired within a community of practice to implement a programme which attempted to embed sustainability within the student experience. The I3E model identifies four overarching components that can support universities in their aim to embed EfS within the undergraduate curriculum. These integrated components are: Inform the university community about sustainability; Engage the different university stakeholders in the change process towards sustainability; Empower individuals and groups to make change happen within their sphere of influence and action; and Embed sustainability within existing university structures.

This article examines five common misunderstandings about case-study research: (a) theoretical knowledge is more valuable than practical knowledge; (b) one cannot generalize from a single case, therefore, the single-case study cannot contribute to scientific development; (c) the case study is most useful for generating hypotheses, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building; (d) the case study contains a bias toward verification; and (e) it is often difficult to summarize specific case studies. This article explains and corrects these misunderstandings one by one and concludes with the Kuhnian insight that a scientific discipline without a large number of thoroughly executed case studies is a discipline without systematic production of exemplars, and a discipline without exemplars is an ineffective one. Social science may be strengthened by the execution of a greater number of good case studies.

El presente artículo se enfoca en la investigación-acción y la física cuántica. Efectúa una comparación respecto a una idea central: el concepto de realidad. Explica la presencia de similitudes, por ejemplo, la realidad como representación y como entidad influenciada por el observador. Más aún, el investigador debe seleccionar entre diferentes marcos explicativos, pues lo real no puede ser abordado por medio de un único aparato teórico
y metodológico. Aunque ambas visiones socavan la ciencia moderna, existen diferencias, en tanto que las particularidades de la investigación-acción son de un rango mayor y la realidad en esta es de índole social y debe ser mejorada.

Phronetic organizational research is an approach to the study of management and organizations focusing on ethics and power. It is based on a contemporary interpretation of the Aristotelian concept phronesis, usually as ‘prudence’. Phronesis is the ability to think and act in relation to values, to deliberate about ‘things that are good or bad for humans’ in the words of Aristotle (1976:1140a24–b12). Phronetic organizational research effectively provides answers to the following four value-rational questions, for specific problematics in management and organization studies: 1. Where are we going with this specific management problematic? 2. Who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? 3. Is this development desirable? 4. What, if anything, should we do about it?

The Aalborg Project may be interpreted as a metaphor of modern politics, modern administration and planning, and of modernity itself. The basic idea of the project was comprehensive, coherent, and innovative, and it was based on rational and democratic argument. During implementation, however, when idea met reality, the play of Machiavellian princes, Nietzschean will to power, and Foucauldian rationality-as-rationalization resulted in the fragmentation of the project.

Bu çalışmanın amacı, üretim, dağıtım ve tüketim kavramlarının öğretimine ilişkin yapılan etkinliklerin katkılarını ortaya çıkarmaktır. Çalışma, nitel araştırma yöntemlerinden eylem araştırması desenine göre tasarlanmıştır. Amaçlı örnekleme yöntemine göre belirlenen çalışma grubunda, Konya ilinde hizmet veren bir devlet ortaokulunda öğrenim gören 24 öğrenci yer almıştır. Çalışmanın verileri; ön bilgi değerlendirme ve son bilgi değerlendirme formları ile ders video kayıtlarından toplanmıştır. Toplanan veriler, içerik analizi yöntemiyle analiz edilmiştir. Araştırma sürecinde öncelikle ön bilgi değerlendirme formu uygulanmış ve öğrencilerin kavramlar hakkındaki bilgileri tespit edilmiştir. Daha sonra öğrencilerin eksik ya da yanlış bilgileri dikkate alınarak, üretim, dağıtım ve tüketim ağı, edebi ürünler ve kavram bulmacaları etkinlikleri yapılmıştır. Eylem araştırmasının sonunda son bilgi değerlendirme formu uygulanmıştır. Araştırmanın sonuçları, yapılan etkinliklerin öğrencilerin üretim, dağıtım ve tüketim kavramlarını daha iyi öğrenmelerini ve kavram yanılgılarını gidermelerini sağladığını göstermiştir.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Sosyal bilgiler, kavram öğretimi, ekonomi öğretimi, üretim, dağıtım, tüketim, eylem araştırması

Abstract

The current study aims to reveal the contributions of activities related to teaching concepts of production, distribution, and consumption. The study is designed according to the action research is one of the qualitative research methods. The working group, which is selected according to the purposive sampling method, consists of 24 students studying at a public middle school that is serving in Konya. The data of the study are collected prior knowledge assessment and final knowledge evaluation forms and video recordings of the lessons. Obtain data were analyzed and interpreted by the content analysis method. Firstly, a prior knowledge evaluation form was utilized and the students' knowledge levels about the concepts were graded. Then, taking into consideration the missing or incorrect learnings of the students, activities of production, distribution and consumption network, literary works and concept puzzles were conducted. After the activities, the final knowledge evaluation form was used.

Keywords: Social studies, concept teaching, production, distribution, consumption, teaching economics, action research

At the same time that case studies are widely used and have produced canonical texts, it may be observed that the case study as a methodology is generally held in low regard, or is simply ignored, within the academy. For example, only 2 of the 30 top-ranked U.S. graduate programs in political science require a dedicated graduate course in case study or qualitative methods, and a full third of these programs do not even offer such a course. In contrast, all of the top 30 programs offer courses in quantitative methods and almost all of them require training in such methods, often several courses. In identifying this paradox of the case study’s wide use and low regard, Gerring rightly remarks that the case study survives in a “curious methodological limbo,” and that the reason is that the method is poorly understood. In what follows, we will try to resolve Gerring’s paradox and help case study research gain wider use and acceptance.

"Table of Contents / Pagination is incorrect:
THE WAYS OF ARISTOTLE – ARISTOTELIAN PHRÓNÊSIS, ARISTOTELIAN PHILOSOPHY OF DIALOGUE, AND ACTION RESEARCH
Olav Eikeland
Preface 1
PART 1 – ARISTOTLE, SOCIAL RESEARCH, AND ACTION RESEARCH 3
1. Introduction – The Challenge of Phrónêsis 3
1.1 Three Kinds of General Theory 10
1.2 Aristotle and Critical Action Research 17
2. Action Research Approaching Phrónêsis 20
2.1 A Philosopher Defending Action Research 21
2.2 Making Social Science Matter 23
2.3 Abandoning Techniques 25
PART 2 – READING ARISTOTLE – LIMITS AND POSSIBILITIES FOR PHRÓNÊSIS 27
3. Virtues – Intellectual and Ethical 29
3.1 Particulars of Ethical Virtues 34
4. Phrónêsis and the Other Intellectual Virtues 38
4.1 Theoretical Knowledge, and Knowledge about Things We Influence 40
4.1.1 Overlaps and Intermeshes 45
4.2 Phrónêsis as an Intellectual Virtue 48
4.2.1 Excursus: Knowledge Forms and Ways of Knowing in Aristotle 49
4.2.1.1 Praxis, Poíêsis, Khrêsis, Páthos – And the Various Forms of the Epistêmai 50
4.2.1.2 Theoretical and Practical Truth 61
4.2 (Continued) Phrónêsis as an Intellectual Virtue 64
4.3 Phrónêsis and Rhetoric, Phrónêsis and Practical Syllogisms 70
4.3.1 The relationship to rhetoric 70
4.3.2 The relationship to practical syllogisms 75
5. Phrónêsis on Means and Ends, Phrónêsis and General Knowledge 76
5.1 Means and Ends, and Kinds of Causes 76
5.1.1 Poíêsis Makes Things, Praxis Makes Perfect 81
5.1.2 “Professional” Deliberations and Deductions 89
5.2 Knowledge, General and Particular 94
5.2.1 General Knowledge, Appropriate Knowledge, Knowledge in Action 94
5.2.2 Héxis (Habitus), and Empeiría (Experience) 103
5.2.3 Knowing Particulars 109
5.2.3.1 By What? 110
5.2.3.2 How? 111
5.2.3.3 Preconditions for a Universally Flexible Consideration 115
6. Developing and Defining Virtue 126
6.1 Developing Virtue 127
6.1.1 Epistêmê and Virtue through the Formation of Habit, Once More 130
6.1.2 What “Means” Means 136
6.1.3 Practical Development with a Hinge to It, the Question of Standards Again 138
6.2 Defining Virtue 145
6.2.1 Nóêsis as Dialogue, or, the Reason Why Aristotle Insists on Letting Phrónêsis Deliberate about Means Only 150
6.2.1.1 The Unfolded Know-How of Nous 152
6.2.1.2 The Topica and the Enfolded Habitus of Dialectics 154
6.2.1.3 The Philosopher, the Dialectician, and Experience 160
6.2.1.3.1 Dialogical Peculiarities 165
6.2.1.3.2 Dialogue and Experience 170
6.2.1.3.3 Basic Principle, Beginning, Medium, and End 182
6.2.1.4 Ways of Learning 185
6.2.1.5 Self-Evident First Principles? 191
6.2.1.6 Praxis1, and Praxis2 194
6.2.2 The Ethical Works do not Deliberate about Means, They Develop and Define Ends 198
6.2.3 Epistêmê, Virtue, and Phrónêsis Defined 205
6.3 Who Develops and Defines? The Art and Practice of Architectonics 214
7. Eudaimonía and Wisdom as “The Highest Practical Good”; Aristotelian Phron-Ethics, Theor-Ethics, and the Way of the Intellectual Commons 219
7.1 Kinds of Theory, Kinds of Practice 220
7.2 Ethics and Politics as Methodological Guidelines for Autonomous Practitioners 230
7.2.1 The Laws of Virtue 233
7.2.2 Tékhnê and Phrónêsis – At the Parting of the Ways 239
7.3 The Wisdom of the Commons – Common Wisdom 242
7.3.1 Tà Koiná – The Commons 247
7.3.2 The Common Skholê 252
7.4 Theor-Ethics and Primary Friendship 254
7.4.1 The Noetic “I” and the Psychological “Me” 259
7.4.2 Theorethical Interventions? 268
7.5 The Way of Theor-Ethics 269
7.5.1 Ethical Excellence – Settling with the Best “for Us”, i.e. for the Second Best “Absolutely” 277
7.6 The Ways of Politics – Continuous Learning in Common 288
7.6.1 Community: What Are the Things Common? 289
7.6.2 Oikos, Pólis, and Constitutions 294
7.6.3 Developing Concord – The Ethico-Political Role of Dialogical Gatherings 299
7.6.4 Different Concepts of Politics 310
7.6.5 Unity and Diversity in the Pólis 318
7.6.6 The Koinópolis as Panarchy – Aristocracy Suspended and Transcended 328
7.6.7 Religious Politics? 338
PART 3 – ARISTOTELIAN ACTION RESEARCH – WISDOM AND EUDAIMONÍA TRANSPOSED, SOCIAL RESEARCH TRANSFORMED 344
8. Neo-Epistemic, Dialogical Action Research 344
9. From Oikos to Pólis, and Beyond 349
10. Aristotle, Marx, and Modern Work Life 359
11. Aristotle Suspended 370
12. Epilogue 376
REFERENCES 381
Appendix 394"

Action research is a type of research related to one’s professional practice.  In the field of education, it can be defined as the process of studying a school, classroom, or teaching-learning situation with the purpose of understanding and improving the quality of actions or instruction.  In this sense, it is the ultimate form of teacher reflection.  Described in this chapter expert are the basic elements and the steps of action research.

In this paper we argue that the use of the communicative theory of Jürgen Habermas in planning theory is problematic because it hampers an understanding of how power shapes planning. We posit an alternative approach based on the power analytics of Michel Foucault which focuses on ‘what is actually done’, as opposed to Habermas’s focus on ‘what should be done’. We discuss how the Foucauldian stance problematises planning, asking difficult questions about the treatment of legitimacy, rationality, knowledge and spatiality. We conclude that Foucault offers a type of analytic planning theory which offers better prospects than does Habermas for those interested in understanding and bringing about democratic social change through planning.

El proyecto de caso presente es un estudio acerca de los contenidos simbólicos de una comunidad en el estado de Chiapas, México, obtenido a partir de una metodología en acción (el psicodrama) que permite una valoración de los mismos símbolos en su movimiento dentro de los vínculos sociales, familiares e individuales.

Así mismo, también es una pequeña lupa que acerca su mirada hacia el contexto bio-psico-social que envuelve a los niños de comunidades rurales dentro del sureste del país.

Ich denke über die Grenzen des kritischen Denkens nach. Unser akademisches Wissen ist heute so umfassend wie nie, wir wissen mehr denn je über unsere Probleme, ob es um den Klimawandel geht, die Wohnungskrise oder die wachsende soziale Ungleichheit. Aber gleichzeitig ist all dieses kritische Wissen weitgehend folgenlos. Der Geist der Kritik wirkt oft wie gelähmt. Der Kapitalismus hingegen ist beweglich. Er handelt, indem er von seinen Kritikern lernt, und zeigt, was schon Karl Marx gepriesen [https://www.zeit.de/2018/18/karl-marx-200jahre-analyse-kapitalismus] hat: dass er ein revolutionäres und höchst innovatives Potenzial hat. Er kooptiert einfach Ideen. Die Idee der Revolution wird übernommen, um aus einem Getränk Geld zu machen, oder die Idee des Teilens wird eingesetzt, um profitabel Schlafgelegenheiten zu verkaufen. Mich interessiert nun, ob man vom Gegner, dem Kapitalismus, diese Fähigkeit des kreativen Umlernens übernehmen kann, ohne die eigenen Werte der Gleichheit und der Verteilungsgerechtigkeit aufzugeben. Was heißt das für mich als Stadtforscherin? Ich habe über Warschau promoviert: Die von den Deutschen im Krieg zerstörte Stadt [

Although action research has become one of the major methods employed in educational research, there has always been a scarcity of solid informational textbooks and journal articles outlining and giving in-depth information about this trendy research methodology. However, it is a well-accepted research methodology and has become one of the most critical research approaches that can be used by educators in order to improve their knowledge and practices (Tekin & Kotaman, 2013). Therefore, it is considered a method of inquiry especially suitable for practicing teachers. Today's teachers are not only expected to teach students but also to act in many areas related to education. They are burdened with many responsibilities such as administrative tasks, advocacy for children, and fundraising. Beyond these duties, teachers have been increasingly seen as researchers as they are expected to constantly improve their teaching practices for the benefit of children's education. Therefore, action research provides them with a methodology they can use while they are working on their regular duties as it is a practical approach conducted with a focus on the teaching and learning process. They can blend research and practice since the researchers draw their findings and conclusions predominantly on their own experiences and observations from their practices. As the author states, "A main focus of action research is the improvement of classroom practice" (p. 23). Therefore, this research experience can contribute to teachers' own and other teachers' practices when they design and revise curriculum. It can also help them make the whole educational process more meaningful for themselves, students, and the school community. The author also identifies clear pathways that have the potential to improve teachers' practices, such as systematic reflections about how teachers would improve their practices with action research methodology. Any research approach excluding the related practitioners' perspectives and contributions should not be seen as a complete process since it is the practitioners who are expected to apply the implications and suggestions drawn by the studies. Action research methodology provides these opportunities and fills a huge gap that needs attention in educational research. To benefit from this experiential methodology, teachers should understand the action research approach. Action research books currently on the market contain too much theoretical information and have a philosophical background, which makes it hard for a practicing teacher to understand. They also provide too few meaningful examples. Most books about action research also suffer from a lack of good quality organization, which can make curious future

This article presents results from the first statistically significant study of cost escalation in transportation infrastructure projects. Based on a sample of 258 transportation infrastructure projects worth US$90 billion and representing different project types, geographical regions, and historical periods, it is found with overwhelming statistical significance that the cost estimates used to decide whether such projects should be built are highly and systematically misleading. Underestimation cannot be explained by error and is best explained by strategic misrepresentation, that is, lying. The policy implications are clear: legislators, administrators, investors, media representatives, and members of the public who value honest numbers should not trust cost estimates and cost-benefit analyses produced by project promoters and their analysts.

This thesis inquires into possibilities for young children‘s active citizenship as provoked through a practice of social justice storytelling with one Preparatory class of children aged five to six years. The inquiry was practitioner-research, through a living educational theory approach cultivating an interrelational view of existing with others in evolving processes of creation. Ideas of young children‘s active citizenship were provoked and explored through storytelling, by a storytelling teacher-researcher, a Prep class of children and their teacher. The three major foci of the study were practice, narrative and action. A series of storytelling workshops with a Prep class was the practice that was investigated. Each workshop began with a story that made issues of social justice visible, followed by critical discussion of the story, and small group activities to further explore the story. The focus on narrative was based on the idea of story as a way knowing. Stories were used to explore social justice issues with young children. Metanarratives of children and citizenship were seen to influence possibilities for young children‘s active citizenship. Stories were purposefully shared to provoke and promote young children‘s active citizenship through social actions. It was these actions that were the third focus of the study. Through action research, a social justice storytelling practice and the children‘s responses to the stories were reflected on both in action and after. These reflections informed and shaped storytelling practice. Learning in a practice of social justice storytelling is explained through living theories of social justice storytelling as pedagogy. Data of the children‘s participation in the study were analysed to identify influences and possibilities for young children‘s active citizenship creating a living theory of possibilities for young children‘s active citizenship.

Abstract: This article relates common ways of conceptualising action research as “intervention”, “collaboration”, “interactive research”, “applied research”, and “practitioner research” to a number of different ways of knowing extracted from the works of Aristotle. The purpose is not to disavow any of these practices but to expand the philosophical, methodological, and theoretical horizon to contain the Aristotelian concept of praxis. It is claimed that praxis knowing needs to be comprehended in order to realize the full, radical potential in action research providing real “added value” in relation to more conventional social research approaches. Praxis knowing radically challenges the divisions of labour between knower-researchers and the known-researched. Thereby it also challenges both the epistemologies and institutionalisations dominating both conventional research and conventional ways of conceptualising action research.

For no apparent reason, research philosophy tends to send dissertation students into a mild panic. The befuddlement caused by a range of new terminology relating to the philosophy of knowledge is unnecessary when all that you are trying to achieve is some clarity over the status of any knowledge claims you make in your study. Business and Management sits within the broader context of the social sciences, and this chapter offers a guide to the standard philosophical positions required to specify the particular form of research you plan to undertake. Collectively, these positions will define what we refer to as a research paradigm (see Figure 1: Methods Map). For us, a comprehensive articulation of a research design draws together five layers of interlocking choices that you, the researcher, should make when specifying how you plan to execute your research. There is no single ‘right’ way to undertake research, but there are distinct traditions, each of which tends to operate with its own, internally consistent, set of choices.

Bags and plastics are tools with similar function on each other, namely as containers for carrying goods or buying goods. However, each tool has different benefits and impacts in its process of use. It makes bags and plastics as two-related tools in consumption substitution functions, the need for both of these tools has now become something to be considered for Indonesian society. In this case, Bezbag take on the role of as the provider of bag products and also give solutions in efforts to reduce the use of plastic bags, by planning a business model of totebag. In this business model canvas, Bezbag focus on 2 research objects namely customer segments and value propositions. Using action research method and qualitative approach, the research carried out with 2 stages of test namely test the problem and test the solution, by interviewing and offering solutions to 30 respondents. Based on the tests, the result is establishment the new business model in customer segments, value propositions, and revenue streams. The customer segments consist of high school students grade 11-12, semester 2-8 college students, office & business workers, enterpreneurs, schools/universities, internal organizations of school, and business companies. Bezbag value propositions consist of simple-worthwhile-impressive principle of production, varied products, top materials quality, and providing special order service. While the revenue streams consist of 3 streams namely: canvas products revenue, shopping bag products revenue, and custom orders revenue.

This article presents the theoretical and methodological considerations behind a research method which the author calls ‘phronetic planning research’. Such research sets out to answer four questions of power and values for specific instances of planning: (1) Where are we going with planning? (2) Who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? (3) Is this development desirable? (4) What, if anything, should we do about it? A central task of phronetic planning research is to provide concrete examples and detailed narratives of the ways in which power and values work in planning and with what consequences to whom, and to suggest how relations of power and values could be changed to work with other consequences. Insofar as planning situations become clear, they are clarified by detailed stories of who is doing what to whom. Clarifications of that kind are a principal concern for phronetic planning research and provide the main link to praxis.

Utgangspunktet for, men samtidig hovedformålet med den følgende teksten er å bidra til en forklaring av hvordan en bestemt tilnærming til eller «modell» for organisasjonsutvikling og -læring1, utviklet over flere tiår (ca. 1980-2010), hovedsakelig ved Arbeidsforskningsinstituttet (AFI) i Oslo og i tilbakeblikk kalt «den kommunikative vending», legger opp til en håndtering av forholdet mellom makt og dialog2. Jeg forsøker å svare på hvordan, men også å vise hva man må kalle tilnærmingsmåtens historisk-teoretisk-metodologiske grunnlag eller bakgrunn. Jeg gjør dette bl.a. ved å hente frem og drøfte innsikter fra Aristoteles’ (384-322 f.Kr.) overleverte verk Corpus Aristotelicum og ved å vise hvordan tolkninger av dette ble spilt inn i en avgjørende fase i arbeidslivsforskningen på AFI. Tekstens overordnede problemutgangspunkt er om man vil, følgende generelle kommentar til Aristoteles’ verk Politikken i Eikeland (1997:301):
«Spenningen mellom filosofi eller saklighet, demokrati og makt ligger på forskjellige måter til grunn for hele den videre politiske tenkning innenfor den europeiske tradisjon».

There is a widespread idea that in grounded theory (GT) research, the researcher has to delay the literature review until the end of the analysis to avoid contamination – a dictum that might turn educational researchers away from GT. Nevertheless, in this article the author (a) problematizes the dictum of delaying a literature review in classic grounded theory, (b) presents arguments for using extant literature in the substantive field within a constructivist grounded theory, and (c) suggests data sensitizing principles in using literature, which are: theoretical agnosticism, theoretical pluralism, theoretical sampling of literature, staying grounded, theoretical playfulness, memoing extant knowledge associations, and constant reflexivity.

Back cover text: If the new fin de siècle marks a recurrence of the real, Bent Flyvbjerg’s Rationality and Power epitomizes that development and sets new standards for social and political inquiry. The Danish town of Aalborg is to Flyvbjerg what Florence was to Machiavelli: a laboratory for understanding the real workings of power, and for grasping what they mean to our more general concerns of social and political organization. Politics, administration, and planning are examined in ways that allow  a rare, in-depth understanding. The reader witnesses, firsthand, the classic and endless drama which defines what modernity and democracy are and can be.