Action Research A Methodology for Change and Development

48 ACTION RESEARCH
predominantly the ‘researcher’ who observes, carries out interviews with
nurses, patients, relatives and other staff and collects, records and organizes
the research data.
The chapter is carefully structured to give a succinct overview of the
aims, theoretical framework, working practices and analytical procedures
relevant to the development of a learning culture. By presenting the
project’s work as two parallel accounts a careful balance is drawn between
giving readers access to the ‘lived experience’ of the action research and theorizing
from it to generate knowledge. The first account is a ‘story’ presented
as a narrative with extended quotations from interview data; the
second a ‘theorized account.’ Both are presented with a combined ‘I’/’We’
authorial voice interspersed with more formal passages where the authorial
voice is left indeterminate; the ‘we’ always refers to Titchen and Binnie
rather than to the whole group of participating nurses.
I have chosen to discuss this chapter because of the way in which it
integrates the experiential knowledge of participants with theoretical
insights drawn from wider social science literature in order to generate new
unique insights that can inform the management and evaluation of other
similar change initiatives. It sets out to generate knowledge, grounds the
action research meticulously in methodological principles that enable and
validate that process and ends with clear statements about the knowledge
that has been generated. These include: filling ‘a gap’ in the literature by
identifying and describing ‘an effective strategy for creating a learning
culture’; developing clear principles for creating such a culture; demonstrating
‘that action research can be an effective strategy for achieving cultural
change in hospital nursing’; and showing ‘how action research itself
facilitates the creation of a learning culture’ when there is ‘an attempt to
ensure congruence between the values and processes of the action and the
research strategies’.
2 It Comes from the People: community development and local theology
by Mary Ann Hinsdale, Helen M Lewis and S Maxine Waller.
Philadelphia: Temple University Press (Hinsdale et al. 1995)
This book presents a case study of an extraordinary development process in a
small rural community, Ivanhoe Town, in the mountains of Virginia, USA. It
is written by two external consultants who carried out participatory research
with the community for around eight years – Hinsdale, a sociologist and staff
member at the Highlander Center, and Lewis, a Catholic sister whose religious
order was already working in the community. Waller is included in the
authorship because she led the development work from within the community
and is quoted extensively throughout the book. The Epilogue is a
10-page edited transcript of a conversation in which Waller reflects on the
draft manuscript and updates Hinsdale and Lewis on recent developments.