New Directions in Action Research

Ortrun Zuber-Skerritt

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2003
• Print ISBN:
  9780750705806
• eBook ISBN:
  9781135715908
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This collection provides a worldwide perspective on action research, a process which covers educational, professional, managerial and organizational development.

Part I
Introduction

Chapter 1
Introduction: New Directions in Action Research

Ortrun Zuber-Skerritt

Action research has been established as an appropriate research paradigm for educational, professional, managerial and organisational development, and it has been the focus of many books in the last five to ten years. This book aims to present new directions in action research by bringing together leading action researchers who have critically reflected on their theory and practice with a focus on emancipatory or critical action research, based on the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory.

Briefly, my understanding of emancipatory action research is that it is collaborative, critical and self-critical inquiry by practitioners (e.g. teachers, managers) into a major problem or issue or concern in their own practice. They own the problem and feel responsible and accountable for solving it through teamwork and through following a cyclical process of:

1. strategic planning;
2. action, i.e. implementing the plan;
3. observation, evaluation and self-evaluation;
4. critical and self-critical reflection on the results of points 1–3 and making decisions for the next cycle of action research, i.e. revising the plan, followed by action, observation and reflection, etc.

Carr and Kemmis (1986) have distinguished between technical, practical and emancipatory action research which I have summarised elsewhere (Zuber- Skerritt 1994:113–14) and reproduced in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 Types of action research and their main characteristics (Zuber-Skerritt 1992: 12)

Technical action research aims to improve effectiveness of educational or managerial practice. The practitioners are co-opted and depend greatly on the researcher as a facilitator. Practical action research, in addition to effectiveness, aims at the practitioners’ understanding and professional development. The researcher’s role is Socratic and to encourage practical deliberation and selfreflection on the part of the practitioners. Action research is emancipatory when it aims not only at technical and practical improvement and the participants’ better understanding, along with transformation and change within the existing boundaries and conditions, but also at changing the system itself or those conditions which impede desired improvement in the system/organisation. It also aims at the participants’ empowerment and self-confidence about their ability to create ‘grounded theory’ (Glaser and Strauss 1967), i.e. theory grounded in experience and practice, by solving complex problems in totally new situations, collaboratively as a team or ‘community of scholars’, everyone being a ‘personal scientist’ (Kelly 1963), contributing in different ways, but on an equal footing with everyone else. There is no hierarchy, but open and ‘symmetrical communication’ as described by Grundy and Kemmis (1988:87):

Action research is research into practice, by practitioners, for practitioners… In action research, all actors involved in the research process are equal participants, and must be involved in every stage of the research… The kind of involvement required is collaborative involvement. It requires a special kind of communication…which has been described as ‘symmetrical communication’, …which allows all participants to be partners of communication on equal terms… Collaborative participation in theoretical, practical and political discourse is thus a hallmark of action research and the action researcher.

The significance of the contents of this book lies in the fact that the majority of authors, after having written substantive books and/or PhD theses on the subject, distill the essence of their work in their respective chapters. This is of benefit to those readers who are not as yet familiar with the literature on critical action research, as well as to those readers who have read the books/theses and are reminded of the main issues and be of interest to a variety of action researchers in education, higher ideas, but with a new focus: emancipatory action research. The book will education, management education, and to consultants in organisational change and development.

Each chapter in this book stands on its own merits and may be read independently from the rest of the chapters. However, the book is designed as a coherent entity structured in three main parts. Part II deals with models, principles and procedures for critical action research (Chapters 2–5). Part III raises some problems and offers various suggested solutions to overcoming these problems and barriers to change (Chapters 6–9). Part III includes chapters which relate critical action research to postmodernism (Chapters 10–13). The following is a brief outline of each chapter for the reader’s preview and possible selection.

Part I:
Principles and procedures for critical action research

Richard Winter in Chapter 2 presents a collection of extracts from his book Learning from Experience: Principles and Practice in Action Research (Falmer Press, London 1989). He defines action research and provides practical advice on problems and issues, such as finding a focus, selecting action research methods and considering ethical issues, writing up action research, and the question of audience. The author advances six important principles for the action research process: reflexive critique, dialectic critique, collaboration, risking disturbance, creating plural structures, and theory and practice internalised. These principles are further developed implicitly or explicitly in subsequent chapters.

Susan Hall discusses the first of Winter’s principles, reflexive critical action research, in Chapter 3. She defines reflexivity in terms of ethnomethodology, critical theory, poststructuralism, and in her own particular interpretation which is based on critical theory. She outlines some purposes for reflexivity in emancipatory action research and obstacles to achieving it. She also gives examples of partial reflexivity (in empirical work and report writing) and of reflexive procedures she has employed in her work. The author argues that the credibility and quality of emancipatory action research can be enhanced through the reflexive research methods she advocates.

Mary Melrose in Chapter 4 presents a tool for reflection and discussion on beliefs and practices in the three areas of curriculum development, evaluation and leadership. She invites the reader to participate and consider focal questions in relation to three main research paradigms—functional, transactional and critical—and to use and critique the tool.

Michael Schratz in Chapter 5 also emphasises the importance of reflection in action research and uses ‘memory work’ as a collective research method to help participants uncover the hidden aspects of their recollection of past events and actions. The reader again may participate in following the process and procedures of the memory-work method and reading the example of a memory story taken from a research study on personal and institutional racism in everyday settings.

Part II:
Problems and solutions

Ortrun Zuber-Skerritt in Chapter 6 summarises her theoretical framework for emancipatory action research and argues that it is an appropriate methodology for education development and organisation development, as well as for the professional development of managers and teachers as action researchers. She then presents an unsuccessful case study with language teachers and discusses the barriers to emancipatory action research and to change. Finally, she demonstrates a step-by-step development of a new model for organisational change and development, adapting and integrating three change models: the classic six-step model of managerial intervention for organisational change (after Beer et al. 1990), Kurt Lewin’s organisational change model and the action research model.

In Chapter 7, Shirley Grundy focuses on empowering leadership and the importance of ‘imagining’. She maintains a critique of ‘straight line management’ and advocates a strong form of democratic decision-making, drawing on Habermas’s ideas of ‘communicative competence’. She argues that ‘thin-line’ (anorexic) management attempts to eliminate uncertainty by taking the shortest route between decision and action, policy and practice, problem and solution. She critiques this kind of management and the personality cult of the ‘charismatic leader’, and argues for a leadership that privileges debate and contestation, with equal access to opportunities to challenge and information sharing. Grundy concludes that empowering leadership is that which fosters and protects people’s confidence and that challenge is interpreted as challenging the idea or evidence, not the person.

Richard Weiskopf and Stephan Laske in Chapter 8 also highlight problems associated with emancipatory action research. Based on a concrete project in personnel management, they argue that some of the assumptions of emancipatory action research are rather problematic—for example, the relationship between researchers and the researched, and power being an integral part of the process. The authors propose that action research be seen as an intervention in the political system of the organisation, based on a ‘cooperation pact’ rather than on consensus.

Graham Webb in Chapter 9 takes a critical view of action research for educational and professional development by tracing the origins of critical theory and its relation to action research. He mounts a critique of action research in terms of emancipation, power, autonomy, democracy, consensus, rationality, solidarity and social justice. He challenges the useful practices of action research and argues for a postmodern stance and practices which are eclectic and pragmatic. Thus this chapter links Part II and Part III.

Part III:
Postmodernism and critical action research

Leonie Jennings and Anne Graham in Chapter 10 explore the possibilities of dialogue between the modern and postmodern, and between critical action research and the modern/postmodern. They conclude that the use of postmodern theorising and tools may contribute greatly to the process of critical action research and that action researchers may come to realise that their actions might have multiple meanings for their listeners/observers. They point at a particular device which is useful for action researchers in the reflection stage of the process, namely the postmodern tool of discourse analysis.

Jack Sanger discusses a postmodern perspective on staff appraisal in Chapter 11. He challenges the notions of empowerment, emancipation and ownership in action research and introduces the term ‘authorship’. Based on a mass action research project on professional appraisal and development with nearly 400 participants, the author describes the cycle of planning a focus, gathering evidence through appropriate research methods, self-evaluation, modification, further planning and reporting the outcomes of the appraisal activities.

Stephen Kemmis in Chapter 12 concisely summarises his previous work on educational action research in the critical tradition. Furthermore, he now challenges the poststructuralists’ criticism of critical theory and argues that critical perspectives in education continue to be relevant in the present postmodern era. First he outlines postmodern conditions and postmodernism, then he describes the tasks of education from three perspectives: functionalist, interpretive/poststructuralist and critical. He also presents three perspectives on change as it affects curriculum developers when confronted with rapid, profound and subtle changes. These are technical, practical and emancipatory or critical. Kemmis makes an argument for continuing relevance of critical perspectives in education which engage all action researchers in curriculum as active participants in the process of educational change, and which may still offer them ways in responding to the challenges of the present postmodern era.

Robin McTaggart in Chapter 12 challenges the pessimistic views of social theorists, who see nothing in enlightenment projects but lack of achievement, lack of sustainable ideas and lack of capacity to change things, events or occurrences. He gives examples of success, both new and perennial, as well as of obstacles to emancipatory aspirations in action research. He concludes that, whilst participatory action researchers face considerable practical, theoretical and organisational challenges, new strategic alliances will provide the way forward.

Conclusion

This book is not intended to provide recipes or guidelines on how to conduct action research. Rather, it presents meta-action research, i.e. research and reflection on action research. Referring back to the typology of the technical, practical and emancipatory approach, this book presents a variety of views on emancipatory or critical action research, held by academics who are highly experienced academics in both the practice and theory, action and research of educational, professional, managerial and organisational development and change.

References

Carr, W. and Kemmis, S. (1986) Becoming Critical: Education, Knowledge and Action Research, Falmer Press, London.

Glaser, B. and Strauss, A. (1967) The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Aldine, Chicago.

Grundy, S. and Kemmis, S. (1982) Educational action research in Australia: the state of the art (an overview). In S.Kemmis and R.McTaggart (eds) The Action Research Reader. Deakin University Press, Victoria, 83–97.

Kelly, G. (1963) A Theory of Personality. Norton, New York.

Part II
Principles and Procedures for Critical Action Research

Chapter 2
Some Principles and Procedures for the Conduct of Action Research

Richard Winter

Abstract

Action research is seen as a way of investigating professional experience which links practice and the analysis of practice into a single, continuously developing sequence. This chapter explores action research methods, the ethical aspects involved, and the crucial question of how action researchers can claim to be less biased than those they are researching. The author advances six principles which are central to the action research process.

They are:

1. reflexive critique, which is the process of becoming aware of our own perceptual biases;
2. dialectic critique, which is a way of understanding the relationships between the elements that make up various phenomena in our context;
3. collaboration, which is intended to mean that everyone’s view is taken as a contribution to understanding the situation;
4. risking disturbance, which is an understanding of our own taken-forgranted processes and willingness to submit them to critique;
5. creating plural structures, which involves developing various accounts and critiques, rather than a single authoritative interpretation;
6. theory and prac...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgements
• Contributors
• Part I Introduction
• Part II Principles and Procedures for Critical Action Research
• Part III Problems and Suggested Solutions
• Part IV Postmodernism and Critical Action Research