Action Research

Editor's Notes

1. Here are the topics I will be covering tonight:
2. There are many definitions for action research. For the sake of time, I selected one which resonates with me. Good action research will: • be both aimed at and grounded in the world of practice; • be explicitly and actively participative: research with, for and by people rather than on people; • draw on a wide range of ways of knowing – including intuitive, experiential, presentational as well as conceptual – and link these appropriately to form theory; • address questions that are of significance to the flourishing of human community and the more-than-human world; • aim to leave some lasting capacity amongst those involved, encompassing first, second and third person perspectives” (Bradbury, & Reason, 2003,. p. 171).
3. A.R. is future oriented. In dealing with the practical concerns of people, A.R. is oriented toward creating a more desirable future for them” (p. 589).   A.R. is collaborative. Interdependence between researcher and the client system is an essential feature of action re-search, and the direction of the research process will be partly a function of the needs and competencies of the two” (p. 589).   A.R. implies system development. The action research process encourages the development of the capacity of a system to facilitate, maintain, and regulate the cyclical process of diagnosing, action planning, action taking, evaluating, and specifying learning. The aim in action research is to build appropriate structures, to build the necessary system and competencies, and to modify the relationship of the system to its relevant environment” (p. 589).   A.R. generates theory grounded in action. In action re-search, theory provides a guide for what should be considered in the diagnosis of an organization as well as for generating possible courses of action to deal with the problems of members of the organization” (p. 590).   A.R. is agnostic. The action researcher recognizes that his or her theories and prescriptions for action are themselves the product of previously taken action and, therefore, are subject to reexamination and reformulation upon entering every new research situation” (p. 590).   A.R. is situational. The action researcher knows that many of the relationships between people, events, and things are a function of the situation as relevant actors currently define it. Such relationships are not often invariant (Blumer, 1956) or free of their context, but can change as the definition of the situation changes” (p. 590).
4. “The term "action research" was introduced by Kurt Lewin in 1946 to denote a pioneering approach toward social research which combined generation of theory with changing the social system through the researcher acting on or in the social system. The act itself is presented as the means of both changing the system and generating critical knowledge about it” ( Susman &Evered,, 1978, p. 586).   “Action research has a complex history because it is not a single academic discipline but an approach to research that has emerged over time from a broad range of fields. There are strong elements of action research in the work of John Dewey, both in his philosophical work and in his studies and experiments in education. Action research perspectives can be found in the early labor-organizing traditions both in the US and Europe, in the Catholic Action movement and in liberation theology. Kurt Lewin brought an action research perspective to the US in the 1940s and succeeded for a time in making the notion of collaborative research with stakeholders with a liberating intent a central interest of a broad range of social scientists. The anthropologist, Sol Tax, founded what he called ‘action anthropology’ to promote both collaboration with local stakeholders and democratization processes. The Tavistock Institute for Human Relations supported action research efforts combining the work of British, Norwegians, and Australians on work in both the UK and Scandinavia. This work has spread to Sweden, Denmark and Germany. Myles Horton and his collaborators founded Highlander in Tennessee to promote social justice, civil rights, and democracy. Paulo Freire, Budd Hall, Marja-Liisa Swantz, Orlando Fals-Borda and others developed and promoted an action research approach to oppression and institutional change. Chris Argyris, Donald Schön, Reg Revans, William Torbert, Peter Reason and John Heron promoted this kind of work in a wide variety of organizations, ranging from private sector companies to public authorities” (Brydon-Miller, Greenwood, & Maguire, 2003, p. 11).
5. “Action research challenges the claims of a positivistic view of knowledge which holds that in order to be credible, research must remain objective and value-free(Brydon-Miller, Greenwood, & Maguire, 2003, p.11). The philosophical worldviews that legitimate action research are: critical theory, pragmatism, hermeneutics, existentialism, phenomenology and PR, an instance of critical theory. PR is premised on the view that research can be conducted be everyday people rather than elite group of researchers; that ordinary people are capable of reflective and critical analysis of a situation.
6. There are three types or three modes of action research. Each mode has a distinct goal. The technical/scientific/collaborative mode has as its goal “to test a particular intervention based on a pre-specified theoretical framework” (p. 186). The practical/mutual collaborative/deliberative mode “seeks to improve practice-and-service delivery” (p. 186). The emancipating/enhancing/critical science mode can “assist practitioners in lifting their veil of clouded understandings, and help them to better understand fundamental problems by raising their collective consciousness” (p. 187). Berg, B. L. (2001). Qualitative research methods for the social sciences (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
7. Strengths Practics would provide the action researcher with know-how such as how to create settings for organizational learning, how to act in unprescribed nonprogrammed situations, how to generate organizational self-help, how to establish action guides where none exist, how to review, revise, redefine the system of which we are part, how to formulate fruitful metaphors, constructs, and images for articulating a more desirable future. Such know-how is difficult to develop or even consider within the positivist framework” (p. 599). Typically, the kinds of skills which action research develops are interpersonal and problem-defining. Competence is developed in interpretation and judgment, in establishing problem-solving procedures, acting in contingent and uncertain situations, learning from one's errors, generating workable new constructs from one's experiences” (p. 599). “The action researcher learns how to use earlier infrastructure efforts as models so that persons in other organizations can learn from and improve upon their example. The researcher's own behaviors are even more influential and become a model of how to act in unprescribed nonprogrammed situations. Weaknesses
8. The typical action research process or cycle begins with the following stages:
9. There are innumerable cyclic models to chose from! Here are examples of just a few: