Tansy JessopPGCLTHE 11 Jan 2016@tansyjtweets@solentlearning

Action Research: is it the feather on the sleeve of your jacket?

Tansy JessopPGCLTHE 11 January 2017

Today’s session

• What you know about it• Key principles of action research• Testing, testing – my three examples• Can you spot it? Looking at abstracts• Planning your project

Your knowledge of Action Research

• Chat to the person next to you and tell them what you think it is

• Post three words that spring to mind when you hear ‘action research’ on www.menti.com using the code 97 11 53

So, what is action research? And is it a thing?

• Kurt Lewin • Frankfurt School• Sensitivity training• Organisational change• Social psychology• Father of action research• ‘. . . one cannot understand an

organization without trying to change it . . .’

(Lewin, 1946).

Four categories of understanding

Action research is not so much a methodology as an orientation towards inquiry that seeks to create a quality of engagement, of curiosity, of question-posing through gathering evidence and testing practices

(Reason and Bradbury, 2005)

It’s not a methodology

Four categories of understanding

• First purpose is to bring an action dimension back to the overly quietist tradition of knowledge generation which has developed in the modern era;

• Second to expand the hold over knowledge by universities and other institutions of ‘higher learning’

• ..from a ‘language turn’ to an ‘action turn’(Reason and Bradbury, 2006)

It’s not pure research

It’s not positivist

Positivist• Reality out there and

external• Experimental method• Hypothesis testing• Statistics and numbers• Neutrality• Universal truths• ‘Tough-minded’

‘Post-positivist’/interpretivist• Complex social realities,

dynamic human interactions• Social and qualitative methods• Generate hypotheses• Words• Interpretive• Relative and multiple truths• ‘Tender-minded’

It’s on a spectrum

Technical

• What works• Functional• Practical• Problem-

solving• Short-term

Practical

•Improves practice•Shapes practice•Develops understanding•Self-reflection

Critical

•Critique of settings•Cultural, social, historical remit•Connect personal and political

Five key principles

1. Practical knowledge for everyday use.2. Naturalistic settings in all their complexity3. Participative research with subjects (Vs on them)4. Change & action: a verb rather than noun5. Critical reflection throughout the cycle of change

The aims of action research are to generate fresh understandings and new practices: these are

provisional and invite review through a spirit of continual reflection

(Cousin, 2009, p.155).

Is this action research?

• Use the five key principles to test whether the abstracts you have fulfil the criteria for action research.

• If so, what kind of action research is it – technical, relational, critical?

Planning your AR project

• Read the trigger questions. • Chat to a partner about what interests you.• Search journals for three readings on the

topic.• Start to develop a research question.• What AR change could begin to answer your

question?• Play around with methodology ideas.

A few methods to think about…

References

Burnes, B. 2004 Kurt Lewin and complexity theories: back to the future? Journal of Change Management 4:4, 309-325, DOI: 10.1080/146970104200030381Cousin, G. (2009) Researching Learning in Higher Education. Abingdon. Routledge.Lincoln, Y. and Guba, E. (1985) Naturalistic Inquiry. Newbury Park, California. Sage.Reason, P. and Bradbury, H. Eds. (2006) Handbook of Action Research. London. Sage.