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

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...Public Collaborative….De/Re- liberative...Equitable Democratic... Liberating Inclusive……Emancipatory Enhancing diversity, multiplicity Passionate Critical friends /Uncritical enemies ACTION RESEARCH as ideology

Reflective... Communicative Qualitative... Soft... Dynamic Hermeneutical... Narrative Contextual Naturalistic... Interpretive Constructivist...Problem-solving Pragmatic philosophy... Historicity ACTION RESEARCH as method(ology)

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

POLITICAL Social issues/agendas/justice Democracy Collaboration/transformation Emancipation The community PROFESSIONAL Knowledge base in education Problemsolving/development In-service training Staff development Curriculum development School reform PERSONAL Self-knowledge/awareness/ confidence Meaning- making/understanding Fullfillment 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 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

Education as Human science Social Science Psychology, didactics Sociology, political science Institutions SCHOOL health care SCHOOLING Technical, meands-ends rationality IMPROVING Efficiency, performance Society, communities SOCIAL MOVEMENTS EDUCATION Understanding, emancipation in order to CHANGE Procedural/expressive rationality Re-presentations Re-searchers Social reality Participants Professional sphere development Developmental, pragmatic Critical-emancipatory Public sphere participation

Minimal requirements for action research Carr & Kemmis 1986, 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 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 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 Technical Work economy, technology Practical Language, discourse Culture Critical-emancipatory Power Politics The actions and everyday practices of human beings Social interaction and 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 data Data 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 data Data quantities qualities idealism/internalism (the idea of world) Åsberg 2001 nomothetic (generalization) Action Research Case Studies

ÅA/Ped.inst. The ”reality” as internal to us Subjective, product of mind and conciousness Nominalism Knowledge is based on experience and insight, subjective and soft Spiritual and transcendental Anti-positivism Human beings autonomous, with a free will, creating the environment Voluntarism The ”reality” as external to us, out there, objective and independent of us Realism Knowledge is hard and real, capable of being transmitted in tangible form Positivism Human beings are dependent of, products of the nature and environment Determinism Ontology Epistemology Human nature SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS AND ORGANIZATIONAL PARADIGMS BURRELL AND MORGAN (1979)

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 world Unique 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 world General, universal Systematic protocol and technique Testing hypotheses and rules Ideographic Nomothetic

ÅA/Ped.inst. REGULATION Status quo Social order Consensus Integration and cohesion Solidarity Needs satisfaction Actuality RADICAL CHANGE Radical change Structural conflict Modes of domination Contradiction Emancipation Deprivation Potentiality Assumptions on the nature of the society

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?