Action Research

From Dar

A definition:

1 Action Research is:
2 Beginners' Guides to Action Research
3 Four Contemporary Myths
4 Del.icio.us Tag for actionresearch
- 4.1 Latest
- 4.2 Popular

Action Research is:

A general term to refer to research methodologies and projects where the researcher(s) tries to directly improve the participating organisation(s) and, at the same time, to generate scientific knowledge. The above definition states that action research projects search for "direct" organisational improvement.

This means that genuine action research projects should search for organisational improvements "during" the research, rather than after the research. In this sense, a research project that seeks to benefit the organisation through the generation of a research report with "useful" information and knowledge cannot be considered a genuine action research project, as this body of information and knowledge could well be produced by a case study or a questionnaire survey. The definition also highlights that action research should search for scientific knowledge. Although the word "scientific" lacks a clear and generally accepted definition, this means that research projects where intervention is not accompanied by systematic reflection and learning cannot be considered genuine action research projects either. Intervention without research is more characteristic of organisational consulting projects, where the basic theory that informs action is embedded in methodologies and normative approaches that, one expects, had been tested before and are likely to produce predictable outcomes (however, this is not always the case).

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Beginners' Guides to Action Research

A good place to start might be "infed", the informal education homepage.

The page on action research is just the sort of good, general overview you would expect from infed: http://www.infed.org/research/b-actres.htm

Two traditions are identified, the "British" version which is concerned with enquiries into improving praxis, particularly but by no means exclusively in the field of education, and a more radical "American" version which is concerned with attempts to bring about social change.

Distributed Action Research in the early stages can be closely linked with the first version, where it may be employed to find ways of improving the facilitation of online communities, particularly communities of practice. DAR may also be relevant to the emancipatory version, perhaps through the international links which the new communications network enables.

Another good overview with a self explanatory title can be found in Rory O'Brien's paper from 1998:

"An Overview of the Methodological Approach of Action Research" http://www.web.net/~robrien/papers/arfinal.html

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Four Contemporary Myths

four such contemporary myths:

That action research is necessarily opposed to positivism;
That, in order to allow for "true emergence" of research findings, action research should begin without a clear research framework;
That action research is necessarily a qualitative research approach;
That action research, due to usually not relying on heavy statistical analysis, allows for fast and easy data collection and analysis.

from Myths in Organisational Action Research: Reflections on a Study of Computer-Supported Process Redesign Groups Nereu F. Kock Jr.

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