On methodologyThis is my observation of reality,

what is yours?

orThis 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

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

Planning for Action Research

Empowering ..Participative...PublicCollaborative….De/Re-liberative...Equitable

Democratic... Liberating

Inclusive……EmancipatoryEnhancing diversity, multiplicity

PassionateCritical friends /Uncritical enemies

ACTION RESEARCHas ideology

Reflective ... CommunicativeQualitative ... Soft ... Dynamic

Hermeneutical ... NarrativeContextual

Naturalistic ... InterpretiveConstructivist ...Problem-solving

Pragmatic philosophy ... Historicity

ACTION RESEARCHas method(ology)

ACTION RESEARCHideology and methodologyGenerating 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

POLITICALSocial issues/agendas/justice

DemocracyCollaboration/transformation

EmancipationThe community

PROFESSIONALKnowledge base in educationProblemsolving/developmentIn-service trainingStaff developmentCurriculum developmentSchool reform

PERSONALSelf-knowledge/awareness/

confidenceMeaning-making/

understandingFullfillment

Teachers voice

POWER AND CONTROL

Teacher-researcher Teacher-learner

Scholar-activist

Noffke 1997

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 2000-2008Zeicher and Somekh 2009

Action research in times of political upheaval and transitionAction research as a state-sponsored means of reforming schoolsCo-option of Action research by Western governments and school systems to control teachersActions research as a university-led reform movement (for e.g. professional development in schools)Action research as locally-sponsored systemic reform sustained over time

Education asHuman science Social Science

Psychology, didactics Sociology, political science

Institutions

SCHOOL health care

SCHOOLINGTechnical, meands-ends rationality

IMPROVINGEfficiency, performance

Society, communities

SOCIAL MOVEMENTSEDUCATION

Understanding, emancipationin order to CHANGE

Procedural/expressive rationality

Re-presentationsRe-searchers

Social realityParticipants

Professional spheredevelopment

Developmental, pragmatic Critical-emancipatory

Public sphereparticipation

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 self-critically implemented)

C The project involves those responsible for the practice in each of the moments of the activity

ACTION RESEARCH?METHOD STRATEGY IDEOLOGY

Explaining and understandingThe role of the

researcher and the relationship to reality

Methodologies?Means for gathering and analysing data?

Development and renewal ofthe existing systems and structures

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

develop

renew

affect

change

empower

TechnicalWorkeconomy, technology

PracticalLanguage, discourseCulture

Critical-emancipatoryPowerPolitics

The actions and everyday

practices of human beings

Social interactionand reality

ACTION RESEARCH

Ontology: the very characteristics of reality

Idealistic materialist existentialist dialectics

Epistemology: the premises of knowing about reality

Realism/externalism (the world outside)

Rationalism empirism constructivism

Hermeneutics phenomenology

Methodology

Idiographic (the unique meaning)

induction/deduction/abduction

Methods gathering data analyzing dataData quantities qualities

idealism/internalism (the idea of world)

Åsberg 2001

nomothetic (generalization)

Action Research?

Ontology: the very characteristics of reality

Idealistic materialist existentialist dialectics

Epistemology: the premises of knowing about reality

Realism/externalism (the world outside)

Rationalism empirism constructivism

Hermeneutics phenomenology

Methodology

Idiographic (the unique meaning)

induction/deduction/abduction

Methods gathering data analyzing dataData quantities qualities

idealism/internalism (the idea of world)

Åsberg 2001

nomothetic (generalization)

Action Research

Case Studies

ÅA/Ped.inst.ÅA/Ped.inst.

The ”reality” as internal to usSubjective, product of mind and

conciousnessNominalism

Knowledge is based on experience and insight,

subjective and softSpiritual and transcendental

Anti-positivism

Human beings autonomous, with a free will,

creating the environmentVoluntarism

The ”reality” as external to us, out there, objective and

independent of usRealism

Knowledge is hard and real, capable of being transmitted

in tangible formPositivism

Human beings are dependent of, products of the nature and

environmentDeterminism

Ontology

Epistemology

Human nature

SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS AND ORGANIZATIONAL PARADIGMSBURRELL AND MORGAN (1979)

ÅA/Ped.inst.ÅA/Ped.inst.ÅA/Ped.inst.

Methodology

To understand and interpret subjective experience in the creation of the social world

From inside

The way in which the engaged individual creates, modifies and

interprets the social worldUnique and particular

First hand knowledge and experience, closeness,

Background, lifehistory, everyday flow of life

Identification of relationships and regularities between

various elements of the world

From outside

Giving names, concepts and labels in order to structure

the worldGeneral, universal

Systematic protocol and technique

Testing hypotheses and rules

Ideographic Nomothetic

ÅA/Ped.inst.ÅA/Ped.inst.ÅA/Ped.inst.

REGULATION

Status quoSocial orderConsensus

Integration and cohesionSolidarity

Needs satisfactionActuality

RADICAL CHANGE

Radical changeStructural conflict

Modes of dominationContradictionEmancipationDeprivationPotentiality

Assumptions on the nature of the society

Action research as a narrative: five principles of validationHeikkinen, 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 validationHeikkinen, 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?