On methodology
This is my observation of reality,
what is yours?
or
This is my experience, tell me yours.
The aim of action research:
to affect and change
the social reality!
Using observations, explanations
and understandings as tools or vehicles
Planning for Action Research
What is to be researched?
The object of the study
Why is it to be researched?
The aim of the study
How is it to be researched?
The method(ologie)s of the study
Empowering ..Participative...Public
Collaborative….De/Reliberative...Equitable
Democratic... Liberating
ACTION RESEARCH
as ideology
Inclusive……Emancipatory
Enhancing diversity, multiplicity
Passionate
Critical friends /Uncritical enemies
Reflective ... Communicative
Qualitative ... Soft ... Dynamic
Hermeneutical ... Narrative
Contextual
ACTION RESEARCH
as method(ology)
Naturalistic ... Interpretive
Constructivist ...Problem-solving
Pragmatic philosophy ... Historicity
ACTION RESEARCH
ideology and methodology
Generating research knowledge as a scholar
and improving social action as an activist
Action research brings with it a democratic
imperative to challenge oppression and nurture
and sustain social justice. It is a methodology
grounded in the values and culture of its
participant-researchers and
hence it is flexible in local agency.
Somekh & Zeichner 2009
Noffke 1997
POLITICAL
Scholar-activist
Social issues/agendas/justice
Democracy
Collaboration/transformation
Emancipation
The community
POWER AND CONTROL
PROFESSIONAL
PERSONAL
Knowledge base in education
Problemsolving/development
In-service training
Staff development
Curriculum development
School reform
Self-knowledge/awareness/
confidence
Meaningmaking/understanding
Fullfillment
Teachers voice
Teacher-researcher
Teacher-learner
Rather than a particular research methodology action
research is best thought of as a large family, one in which
relationships vary greatly. More than a set of discrete
practices, it is a group of ideas emergent in various
contexts.
Defining action research in terms of a particular process
or series of steps may help to identify it as a research
technique, but in doing so one also clouds the issues of
the purposes to which it is advanced: the political
agendas, both overt and embedded in the construction
of the professional and personal.
Noffke 1997
Action Research in
Educational Action Research 2000-2008
Zeicher and Somekh 2009
Action research in times of political upheaval
and transition
Action research as a state-sponsored means of
reforming schools
Co-option of Action research by Western governments
and school systems to control teachers
Actions research as a university-led reform movement
(for e.g. professional development in schools)
Action research as locally-sponsored systemic reform
sustained over time
Developmental, pragmatic
Re-presentations
Re-searchers
Critical-emancipatory
Social reality
Participants
Professional sphere
Public sphere
development
participation
Institutions
Society, communities
SCHOOL health care
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
SCHOOLING
EDUCATION
Technical, meands-ends rationality
Understanding, emancipation
in order to CHANGE
Procedural/expressive rationality
IMPROVING
Efficiency, performance
Education as
Human science Social Science
Psychology, didactics
Sociology, political science
Minimal requirements for action research
Carr & Kemmis 1986, 165-166
A project takes as its subject matter a social practice,
regarding it as a form of strategic action suspectible of
improvement
B The project proceeds trough a spiral of cycles of planning,
acting, observing and reflecting (systema-tically and selfcritically implemented)
C The project involves those responsible for the practice in
each of the moments of the activity
ACTION RESEARCH?
METHOD
STRATEGY
Explaining and
understanding
The role of the
researcher and the
relationship to reality
Methodologies?
Means for gathering
and analysing data?
Development and
renewal of
the existing
systems and
structures
IDEOLOGY
Enhancement of
participation and
furthering justice
Improvement of the
prerequisites for growing
as a human being and
being in the world
Research-oriented Intervention-oriented
Action-oriented
ACTION RESEARCH
The actions and
everyday
practices of
human beings
Social
interaction
and reality
Technical
Work
economy, technology
develop
Practical
Language, discourse
Culture
affect
Critical-emancipatory
Power
Politics
renew
change
empower
Ontology: the very characteristics of reality
Idealistic
materialist
existentialist
dialectics
Epistemology: the premises of knowing about reality
Realism/externalism
(the world outside)
Rationalism
idealism/internalism
(the idea of world)
empirism
Hermeneutics
constructivism
phenomenology
Action
Research?
Methodology
Idiographic
(the unique meaning)
nomothetic
(generalization)
induction/deduction/abduction
Methods
Data
gathering data
quantities
analyzing data
qualities
Åsberg 2001
Ontology: the very characteristics of reality
Idealistic
materialist
existentialist
dialectics
Epistemology: the premises of knowing about reality
Realism/externalism
idealism/internalism
(the idea of world)
(the world outside)
Rationalism
empirism
Hermeneutics
constructivism
phenomenology
Methodology
Idiographic
(the unique meaning)
nomothetic
Action
Research
Case
Studies
(generalization)
induction/deduction/abduction
Methods
Data
gathering data
quantities
analyzing data
qualities
Åsberg 2001
SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS AND ORGANIZATIONAL PARADIGMS
BURRELL AND MORGAN (1979)
Ontology
The ”reality” as internal to us
Subjective, product of mind and
conciousness
Nominalism
The ”reality” as external to
us, out there, objective and
independent of us
Realism
Knowledge is based on
experience and insight,
subjective and soft
Spiritual and transcendental
Anti-positivism
Knowledge is hard and real,
capable of being transmitted
in tangible form
Positivism
Human beings autonomous,
with a free will,
creating the environment
Voluntarism
Human beings are dependent
of, products of the nature and
environment
Determinism
Epistemology
Human nature
ÅA/Ped.inst.
Methodology
Ideographic
Nomothetic
To understand and interpret
subjective experience in the
creation of the social world
Identification of relationships
and regularities between
various elements of the world
From inside
From outside
The way in which the engaged
individual creates, modifies and
interprets the social world
Unique and particular
Giving names, concepts and
labels in order to structure
the world
General, universal
First hand knowledge and
experience, closeness,
Background, lifehistory,
everyday flow of life
Systematic protocol and
technique
Testing hypotheses and rules
ÅA/Ped.inst.
REGULATION
RADICAL CHANGE
Status quo
Social order
Consensus
Integration and cohesion
Solidarity
Needs satisfaction
Actuality
Radical change
Structural conflict
Modes of domination
Contradiction
Emancipation
Deprivation
Potentiality
Assumptions on the nature of the society
ÅA/Ped.inst.
Action research as a narrative: five principles of validation
Heikkinen, Huttunen & Syrjälä 2007
Principle of historical continuity (The past beyond the social present)
How has the action evolved historically?
How logically and coherently does the narrative proceed?
Principle of reflexivity (A good researcher is aware of ones knowing)
What is the researcher's relationship with his/her object of research like?
What are the researcher's presumptions of knowledge and reality?
How does the researcher describe his/her material and methods?
Principle of dialectics (Truth is constructed in interaction)
How has the researcher's insight developed in dialogue with others?
How does the report present different voices and interpretations?
How authentic and genuine are the protagonists of the narrative?
Action research as a narrative: five principles of validation
Heikkinen, Huttunen & Syrjälä 2007
Principle of workability (What is fruitful is alone truth)
How well does the research succeed in creating workable practices?
What kind of discussion does the research provoke?
How are ethical problems dealt with?
Does the research make people believe in their own capabilities and
possibilities to act and thereby encourage new practices and actions?
Principle of evocativeness (Good research evokes emotions and
mental images)
How well does the research narrative evoke mental images, memories or
emotions related to the theme?