Action Research A Methodology for Change and Development

8 ACTION RESEARCH
Action research involves exploratory engagement with a wide range of existing
knowledge drawn from psychology, philosophy, sociology and other
fields of social science, in order to test its explanatory power and practical
usefulness. This approach to existing knowledge is important: it is not
accepted without question, assumed to be useful and applied to the situation
under study; rather, it is explored and tested in relation to the data
being collected from the situation under study and becomes an integral part
of analysis and interpretation in the action research. In this way, the accumulated
knowledge and wisdom of others, from past and present generations,
is built upon and refined and used to shed light on the situated data
from a specific field of study.
Action research engenders powerful learning for participants through
combining research with reflection on practice. The development of selfunderstanding
is important in action research, as it is in other forms of
qualitative research, because of the extent to which the analysis of data and
the interpretive process of developing meanings involves the self as a
research instrument. Primarily, this is a matter of ensuring the quality of
research through understanding how personal values and assumptions
shape research findings. However, because of the focus on their practice,
action research also necessarily involves powerful personal–professional
learning for the participant–researchers about the impact of their own
assumptions and practices on work outcomes and relationships with colleagues.
For ‘outsiders’ this form of learning may be less intense than for
‘insiders’, but the new relationships and practices involved in carrying out
the action research will lead to reflection on their research role and activities
and hence to personal–professional learning.
Action research locates the inquiry in an understanding of broader historical,
political and ideological contexts that shape and constrain human activity at
even the local level, including economic factors and international forces
such as the structuring power of globalization. The advantage of working in
teams with insider–participants and outsiders collaborating together is that
it is easier to adopt this broader perspective, not necessarily because outsiders
bring specialist knowledge but because insiders are necessarily constrained
in their analysis of the larger framework in which the site of study
is located by being enmeshed in its institutional culture and assumptions.
Overview of the book
The book is divided into this introduction and nine chapters.
Chapter 1 discusses some methodological issues relating to agency,
change and the generation of actionable knowledge that are important in
designing and implementing action research projects. It draws on a wide
range of literature but is also grounded in my own work. The eight method-