Action research (Methodology)

Multiple AR cycles to increase participation in a DVD class.

by Simon Humphries

Reference: Humphries, S. (2008). Multiple AR cycles to increase participation in a DVD class. In K. Bradford Watts, T. Muller, & M. Swanson (Eds.), JALT2007 Conference Proceedings. Tokyo: JALT.

This paper describes the implementation of four Action Research (AR) cycles to improve the motivation and... more This paper describes the implementation of four Action Research (AR) cycles to improve the motivation and participation levels of Japanese learners of English in a rural technical college. The discussion phase of a movie essay-composition course is evaluated and improved upon during a four-year period through video recordings, interviews, questionnaires, peer collaboration, and a research diary. The study comprises four AR cycles. Although the third cycle faced problems related to complexity, the other three cycles took steps to improve comprehension, reduce anxiety, and increase motivation. Many research publications explain how a problem was noticed and solved. In contrast, this study illustrates how teachers can implement multiple AR cycles to achieve incremental improvements.

Condescending ethics and action research

by Olav Eikeland

Abstract
The article outlines ethical aspects of action research at two different levels: philosophical and... more Abstract
The article outlines ethical aspects of action research at two different levels: philosophical and ‘applied’. It also emphasizes ethical aspects of practitioner research and conventional social research tacitly implied in the relations between researchers and researched presupposed by the two approaches. Conventional research ethics is insufficient for grasping these aspects, since it is constituted within the relations assumed by conventional research. Conventional research ethics is also claimed to be a ‘condescending ethics’ unfit for action research because of its practice of ‘othering’ human beings as research subjects. This article interprets many ethical dilemmas experienced by action researchers as ‘othering-effects’, only to be overcome through the establishment of peer communities of inquiry among combined ‘practitioners-researchers-researched’. It uses a book on ethics and action research as a starting point for reflections about the very real challenges of creating peer communities of inquiry doing action/practitioner research.

Aristotle, validity, and action research

by Olav Eikeland

pp.29-44 in Boog, Ben; Preece, Julia; Slagter, Meindert; and Zeelen, Jacques (eds.): Towards Quality Improvement of Action Research, Rotterdam / Taipei, Sense Publishers

Afterthoughts on ethics and action research

by Olav Eikeland

pp.29-53 in Lehtonen,J. & Kalliola, S. (ed.) (2008), Dialogue in Working Life Research and Development in Finland, Frankfurt a.M., Peter Lang Publishers

This book opens a view into the dialogical methods used in national policy programmes and in local action research... more This book opens a view into the dialogical methods used in national policy programmes and in local action research projects in Finland. On the basis of versatile academic and facilitator experience the authors shed light on the theoretical-philosophical backgrounds of the methods and analyze the prerequisites and the challenges of dialogue in case studies in different work environments - from day care to new technology. Dialogue is seen both as episodic situations and as continuous processes that may promote the quality of working life and the effectiveness of organizations. The creation of permanent development structures by using dialogue as a driver of learning, action and change is proposed to be one of the most challenging aims of the research-assisted development activities.

Contents: Satu Kalliola: Foreword - Jarmo Lehtonen: Introduction - Olav Eikeland: Afterthoughts on ethics and action research - Pekka Kuusela: Dialogue and change in organizations - Jukka Sädevirta: The emergence and development of institutional dialogue - Maarit Lahtonen/Nuppu Rouhiainen: The role of dialogue in a national workplace development programme - Satu Kalliola/Risto Nakari: Dialogues with an impact on development - Robert Arnkil: Remembering the future: future dialogue and the future of dialogising - Arja Ala-Laurinaho: Dialogue in a knowledge production process - practitioners and experts designing a technological environment - Sirpa Syvänen: Development structures and dialogic processes in research-assisted development of services for the elderly - Taina Tuomi: Dialogue through group learning - Helena Rajakaltio: Finnish School - The PISA star and dialogical paradox - Jarmo Lehtonen/Teijo Räsänen: Dialogue as a method of learning and constructing development structures - Jarmo Lehtonen/Risto Nakari: From episodes to dialogue driven change and action.

Unmet challenges and unfulfilled promises in action research: A reply To Davydd J. Greenwood and Björn Gustavsen

by Olav Eikeland

Concepts and Transformation, Volume 8, Number 3, 2003 , pp. 265-273(9)

This article is a response to Davydd J. Greenwood's critical review of defensiveness and sloppiness in the current... more This article is a response to Davydd J. Greenwood's critical review of defensiveness and sloppiness in the current action research (AR) community. My experience of the situation in AR coincides to a large degree with Greenwood's. His claims are hard to test, however, since he hardly gives concrete examples. In order to sort out real “sloppiness“ (whatever that is), we have to take into consideration the conditions under which most AR has to work. I also think Greenwood's contention that AR suffers from “complacency about fundamental issues of theory, method and validity“ has to do with fundamental changes in AR's self-understanding between “old AR“ before 1965 and “the second wave“ from the 1970s on. Personally I recommend an AR-strategy — immanent critique — that balances between “morally superior, but sloppy and complacent AR“ on the one hand and “conventional social research“ (whatever that is nowadays), but find it hard to find much support in the AR community, for reasons, I believe, that have to do with the mentioned fundamental change in justification-strategy and self-conception within AR. At the end I announce some issues I would like to discuss further, but for which I lack the space in this article.

Keywords: action research; immanent critique; justification-strategies for action research; phrónêsis

Research, practice, and the space between: Care of the self within neoliberalised institutions

by Dallas Rogers

Cultural Studies <=> Critical Methodologies, 2012 (draft only)

This article challenges the neoliberal discourse of “instrumental rationality” that is encroaching on theories of... more This article challenges the neoliberal discourse of “instrumental rationality” that is encroaching on theories of qualitative research, critical reflection, and subjectivity. I return to Foucault’s historical ontology of the self and the ancient Athenian precept care of the self to show that critical reflection and rationality have never been mutually exclusive. I put the care of the self metaphor to empirical use by examining the practical and ethical issues that emerged when I transitioned from a state-sponsored frontline employee working with public housing tenants, to a university researcher investigating public housing tenant participation in a state-sponsored urban redevelopment project. The focus is on my experiences as a practitioner-researcher working within two neoliberalized institutions, while also constructing a performative research ethic to mount a challenge against the politics of neoliberal “evidence” in the space between.

Book Review: M.Kristiansen, J.Bloch-Poulsen (2005), Midwifery and Dialogue in Organizations – Emergent Mutual Involvement in Action Research

by Olav Eikeland

Rainer Hampp Verlag, München & Mering 2005, 297 pp., € 29.80
ISBN 3879889937

Turning to practice - what does it mean and why is it important

by Olav Eikeland

Action Research; Applied Research, Intervention Research, Collaborative Research, Practitioner Research, or Praxis Research?

by Olav Eikeland

Published in International Journal of Action Research (IJAR), no. 1, 2012

Abstract: This article relates common ways of conceptualising action research as “intervention”, “collaboration”,... more Abstract: This article relates common ways of conceptualising action research as “intervention”, “collaboration”, “interactive research”, “applied research”, and “practitioner research” to a number of different ways of knowing extracted from the works of Aristotle. The purpose is not to disavow any of these practices but to expand the philosophical, methodological, and theoretical horizon to contain the Aristotelian concept of praxis. It is claimed that praxis knowing needs to be comprehended in order to realize the full, radical potential in action research providing real “added value” in relation to more conventional social research approaches. Praxis knowing radically challenges the divisions of labour between knower-researchers and the known-researched. Thereby it also challenges both the epistemologies and institutionalisations dominating both conventional research and conventional ways of conceptualising action research.

Action Research. The first steps to start up a pilot experiment in heritage education

by Janine Sprünker

Working Papers Series: WP 08-006, 2008

The relationships museums-schools are changing through the use of Internet. We want to analyses how these new... more The relationships museums-schools are changing through the use of Internet. We want to analyses how these new relationships occur at a national level. It is relevant to analyze these possible new relationships, product of social and technological changes which allow new interactions and participation that at the same time imply changes in organization forms, web resources management and teaching and learning models.
Concretely, shaping learning networks can establish a new form of relationship museums-schools and educational online resources with cultural heritage content can become learning opportunities and knowledge resources outside formal education walls. But there must be experimental projects to test this evidences and to seek how this kind of teaching and learning practices will work within a concrete social and cultural context. Thereby, Action Research can contribute to the development of a learning experience, based on reflection and actions.
The goal of this experimentation is to obtain a working model and good learning and teaching practices of learning networks shaped by heritage managers, teachers and students where the members will produce and use educational online resources with cultural heritage content. The outcomes of this empirical research project will be compared with results from the first methodological part of the PhD thesis for obtaining an exportable model to other settings.

Action Research. Learning networks and educational online resources with cultural heritage content

by Janine Sprünker

Actas IADIS International Conference e-Society 200928 de febrero de 2009

The relationships museums-schools are changing through the use of Internet. It is relevant to analyze these possible... more The relationships museums-schools are changing through the use of Internet. It is relevant to analyze these possible new relationships, product of social and technological changes which allow new interactions and participation that at the same time imply changes in organization forms, web resources management and teaching and learning methods and process. Specifically, shaping learning networks can establish a new form of relationship museums-schools, and educational online resources with cultural heritage content can provide learning opportunities and knowledge resources outside of formal education walls. But there must be experimental projects to test how this kind of teaching and learning practice will work within a determinate social and cultural context. Thereby, Action Research can contribute to develop a learning experience, where the study subjects are also researchers. The goal of this experimentation is to obtain a working model of joint production and use of educational online resources with cultural heritage content through learning networks which seek to contribute to High School students acquiring scientific knowledge and curriculum issues. The outcomes of the Action Research project which imply a learning experience and collective construction of knowledge based on practice will be part of a dissertation.

Educación patrimonial de calidad para promover un aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida

by Janine Sprünker

ICOM CECA 2011 annual conference, Zagreb (Croatia),  16-21 September 2011.

Un museo está al servicio de la sociedad y de su desarrollo (ICOM, 2007). Por lo tanto, la función educativa del museo... more Un museo está al servicio de la sociedad y de su desarrollo (ICOM, 2007). Por lo tanto, la función educativa del museo debe apoyar esa finalidad, la cual coincide con la finalidad que tiene la educación formal (Departament d’Educació, 2007b). Sin embargo, para asegurar el desarrollo personal y social de las personas (Silverman, 2010), y en nuestro caso, del alumnado de la educación secundaria obligatoria, debemos tener en cuenta determinados elementos que proporcionarán una mayor calidad a la educación patrimonial. La presente comunicación presenta algunos resultados obtenidos del proyecto de investigación-acción "3c4learning", enmarcado en el grupo de investigación Museia, en el cual participaron dos museos, una institución cultural y tres institutos de secundaria de Cataluña. Uno de los objetivos fue definir los criterios de calidad de una educación patrimonial a través del uso de Internet, cuando esta tiene lugar a partir de la colaboración entre el profesorado y los gestores culturales.
Los criterios comprenden la fase de planificación, ejecución del proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje y la evaluación. No establecer colaboración limita la calidad de la educación patrimonial porque, entre otros aspectos, se deben encajar los requisitos curriculares y los recursos disponibles, en el contexto socioeconómico del centro educativo, para aprovechar todas las potencialidades del contexto, de los recursos, de los profesionales y responder a las necesidades educativas específicas de un determinado alumnado. Los proyectos de educación patrimonial de calidad, desarrollan las competencias básicas.

Why Should Mainstream Social Researchers Be Interested in Action Research?

by Olav Eikeland

International Journal of Action Research, Vol. 3, No. 1+2, 38-64

Aksjonforskning–empirisk forskning, organisasjonsutvikling eller filosofi

by Olav Eikeland

From epistemology to gnoseology - understanding the knowledge claims of action research

by Olav Eikeland

Management Research News, Vol. 30 No. 5, 2007, pp. 344-358
#Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0140-9174
DOI 10.1108/01409170710746346

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of the article is to aid the reader in understanding the knowledge claims in... more Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of the article is to aid the reader in understanding the knowledge claims in different forms of action research and to see what kind of ‘‘turn to practice’’ is required in research on organising, organisational learning, and management.
Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual framework extracted from the philosophy of Aristotle is presented for understanding the knowledge claims of action research in relation to other approaches.
Findings – Some form of action research should be pursued, but action research is a label covering many different approaches suggesting different ways of relating knowledge and action.
Research limitations/implications – In order to provide valid, practicable knowledge both action research and mainstream research need to reconfigure and sort things better. The call is for doing more organizational research as ‘‘praxis research’’ as part of late modern, socially distributed knowledge production modes.
Practical implications – The required reconfiguration of organizational research also requires systematic organizational learning in work organizations.
Originality/value – Providing a conceptual framework that is able to grasp the different knowledge forms operating under socially distributed ‘‘mode 2’’ conditions, and to point out required implications for both research and practice, is new.
Keywords Action research, Epistemology
Paper type Conceptual paper

The ways of Aristotle: Aristotelian phrónêsis, Aristotelian philosophy of dialogue, and action research

by Olav Eikeland

Table of Contents / Pagination is incorrect:
THE WAYS OF ARISTOTLE – ARISTOTELIAN PHRÓNÊSIS, ARISTOTELIAN... more Table of Contents / Pagination is incorrect:
THE WAYS OF ARISTOTLE – ARISTOTELIAN PHRÓNÊSIS, ARISTOTELIAN PHILOSOPHY OF DIALOGUE, AND ACTION RESEARCH
Olav Eikeland
Preface 1
PART 1 – ARISTOTLE, SOCIAL RESEARCH, AND ACTION RESEARCH 3
1. Introduction – The Challenge of Phrónêsis 3
1.1 Three Kinds of General Theory 10
1.2 Aristotle and Critical Action Research 17
2. Action Research Approaching Phrónêsis 20
2.1 A Philosopher Defending Action Research 21
2.2 Making Social Science Matter 23
2.3 Abandoning Techniques 25
PART 2 – READING ARISTOTLE – LIMITS AND POSSIBILITIES FOR PHRÓNÊSIS 27
3. Virtues – Intellectual and Ethical 29
3.1 Particulars of Ethical Virtues 34
4. Phrónêsis and the Other Intellectual Virtues 38
4.1 Theoretical Knowledge, and Knowledge about Things We Influence 40
4.1.1 Overlaps and Intermeshes 45
4.2 Phrónêsis as an Intellectual Virtue 48
4.2.1 Excursus: Knowledge Forms and Ways of Knowing in Aristotle 49
4.2.1.1 Praxis, Poíêsis, Khrêsis, Páthos – And the Various Forms of the Epistêmai 50
4.2.1.2 Theoretical and Practical Truth 61
4.2 (Continued) Phrónêsis as an Intellectual Virtue 64
4.3 Phrónêsis and Rhetoric, Phrónêsis and Practical Syllogisms 70
4.3.1 The relationship to rhetoric 70
4.3.2 The relationship to practical syllogisms 75
5. Phrónêsis on Means and Ends, Phrónêsis and General Knowledge 76
5.1 Means and Ends, and Kinds of Causes 76
5.1.1 Poíêsis Makes Things, Praxis Makes Perfect 81
5.1.2 “Professional” Deliberations and Deductions 89
5.2 Knowledge, General and Particular 94
5.2.1 General Knowledge, Appropriate Knowledge, Knowledge in Action 94
5.2.2 Héxis (Habitus), and Empeiría (Experience) 103
5.2.3 Knowing Particulars 109
5.2.3.1 By What? 110
5.2.3.2 How? 111
5.2.3.3 Preconditions for a Universally Flexible Consideration 115
6. Developing and Defining Virtue 126
6.1 Developing Virtue 127
6.1.1 Epistêmê and Virtue through the Formation of Habit, Once More 130
6.1.2 What “Means” Means 136
6.1.3 Practical Development with a Hinge to It, the Question of Standards Again 138
6.2 Defining Virtue 145
6.2.1 Nóêsis as Dialogue, or, the Reason Why Aristotle Insists on Letting Phrónêsis Deliberate about Means Only 150
6.2.1.1 The Unfolded Know-How of Nous 152
6.2.1.2 The Topica and the Enfolded Habitus of Dialectics 154
6.2.1.3 The Philosopher, the Dialectician, and Experience 160
6.2.1.3.1 Dialogical Peculiarities 165
6.2.1.3.2 Dialogue and Experience 170
6.2.1.3.3 Basic Principle, Beginning, Medium, and End 182
6.2.1.4 Ways of Learning 185
6.2.1.5 Self-Evident First Principles? 191
6.2.1.6 Praxis1, and Praxis2 194
6.2.2 The Ethical Works do not Deliberate about Means, They Develop and Define Ends 198
6.2.3 Epistêmê, Virtue, and Phrónêsis Defined 205
6.3 Who Develops and Defines? The Art and Practice of Architectonics 214
7. Eudaimonía and Wisdom as “The Highest Practical Good”; Aristotelian Phron-Ethics, Theor-Ethics, and the Way of the Intellectual Commons 219
7.1 Kinds of Theory, Kinds of Practice 220
7.2 Ethics and Politics as Methodological Guidelines for Autonomous Practitioners 230
7.2.1 The Laws of Virtue 233
7.2.2 Tékhnê and Phrónêsis – At the Parting of the Ways 239
7.3 The Wisdom of the Commons – Common Wisdom 242
7.3.1 Tà Koiná – The Commons 247
7.3.2 The Common Skholê 252
7.4 Theor-Ethics and Primary Friendship 254
7.4.1 The Noetic “I” and the Psychological “Me” 259
7.4.2 Theorethical Interventions? 268
7.5 The Way of Theor-Ethics 269
7.5.1 Ethical Excellence – Settling with the Best “for Us”, i.e. for the Second Best “Absolutely” 277
7.6 The Ways of Politics – Continuous Learning in Common 288
7.6.1 Community: What Are the Things Common? 289
7.6.2 Oikos, Pólis, and Constitutions 294
7.6.3 Developing Concord – The Ethico-Political Role of Dialogical Gatherings 299
7.6.4 Different Concepts of Politics 310
7.6.5 Unity and Diversity in the Pólis 318
7.6.6 The Koinópolis as Panarchy – Aristocracy Suspended and Transcended 328
7.6.7 Religious Politics? 338
PART 3 – ARISTOTELIAN ACTION RESEARCH – WISDOM AND EUDAIMONÍA TRANSPOSED, SOCIAL RESEARCH TRANSFORMED 344
8. Neo-Epistemic, Dialogical Action Research 344
9. From Oikos to Pólis, and Beyond 349
10. Aristotle, Marx, and Modern Work Life 359
11. Aristotle Suspended 370
12. Epilogue 376
REFERENCES 381
Appendix 394

Validity of Action Research and Validity in Action Research

by Olav Eikeland

pp. 193-240 in Aagaard Nielsen, Kurt and Svensson, Lennart (ed.) (2006), Action And Interactive Research - Beyond Theory and Practice, Maastricht and Aachen, Shaker Publishing

Phrónêsis, Aristotle, and action research

by Olav Eikeland

International Journal of Action Research 2(1), 5-53

International Journal of Action Research 2(1), 5-53
ISSN 1861-1303 (print), ISSN 1861-9916 (internet), © Rainer... more International Journal of Action Research 2(1), 5-53
ISSN 1861-1303 (print), ISSN 1861-9916 (internet), © Rainer Hampp Verlag, www.Hampp-Verlag.de
'
Phrónêsis, Aristotle, and Action Research
Olav Eikeland

This article presents an interpretation of Aristotelian phrónêsis and its relevance for action research. After pointing out some insufficiencies in how phrónêsis is applied by other interpreters with relevance for action research, I present my own interpretation of Aristotle’s concept in the wider context of his thinking on intellectual and ethical virtues. The article’s conclusion is that phrónêsis is very important for both action
researchers and others. But at the same time, phrónêsis is not a concept that can be adopted by itself, alone, and in isolation from other intellectual and ethical virtues or ways of knowing. Phrónêsis is necessary, but at the same time insufficient. Phrónêsis is not a concept primarily concerned
with learning, inquiry, and research. Its primary focus is “application”, performance, or enactment. Action research has a lot to learn from Aristotle, and phrónêsis is definitely among the things to be learned. Aristotle’s praxis-orientation sticks even deeper, however. This more profound praxis-orientation becomes quite invisible by operating with
simplified and mutually exclusive divisions between phrónêsis, tékhnê, and epistêmê, and by conflating other distinctions that were important to maintain for Aristotle. Aristotle’s profound praxis-orientation is even more central to action research. It has to do with dialogue or dialectics
whose tasks really are fundamentally concerned with learning, inquiry, and research.

Key words: Action research, Aristotle, Dialogical research, Judgement, Phrónêsis, Prudence, Rhetoric, Virtues, ethical and intellectual

Turning Practically: Broadening the Horizon

by Olav Eikeland

Introduction by Olav Eikeland and Davide Nicolini to Special Issue of Journal of Organizational Change Management,pp. 164-174, Vol.24, No. 2, 2011, on Changing Practice Through Reflection

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue, positioning the articles... more Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue, positioning the articles in relation to the current “turn to practice” within organisation and management studies.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper introduces a schematic classification of ways of putting practice at the centre of the concern of social scientists depending on the interest of the researcher and his/her position with regard to the object of the research.

Findings – The paper finds that turning to practice does not necessarily, or simply, equate with becoming more engaged, or with making social science relevant, or with moving social science closer to the practical concerns of separate practitioners. It is argued that the effort should be concentrated on developing a type of theory that helps practitioners articulate what they already do, and therefore somehow know. The model for this way of theorising would therefore be not physics or astronomy but rather grammar – a discipline that although just as old, has been based traditionally on a very different relationship between knower and known.

Practical implications – The paper argues that when conceived after a grammatical model, “theory” may become a resource to be used in action and for action to produce emancipatory awareness and trigger change through critical reflection.

Originality/value – The papers in this special issue constitute an initial contribution in this direction as they indicate different ways in which theory, when developed “with” and “amid” and not “for” or even “about” practitioners, may become a powerful trigger of change and transformation.

“Habitus-Validity in Organisational Theory and Research – Social Research and Work Life Transformed”, Chapter 1

by Olav Eikeland

Chapter 1, pp.33-66 in Brøgger, Benedicte and Eikeland, Olav (eds.) (2009): Turning to Practice with Action Research, Frankfurt a.M., Peter Lang Publishers

Chapter 1. Olav Eikeland: Habitus-validity in organisational theory and research – social research and work life... more Chapter 1. Olav Eikeland: Habitus-validity in organisational theory and research – social research and work life transformed. This chapter introduces the concept of “habitus-validity”, based on the Aristotelian concept of habitus or héxis, established within social research over the last decades through the infl uence of Pierre Bourdieu. Action research requires ways of thinking about validity different from and apparently incompatible with mainstream concepts of validity, whether quantitative, qualitative, explanatory, or interpretive. The article presents and discusses the role of habitus-validity in the development of both practical and theoretical knowledge. Habitus-validity tries to conceptualize knowledge validity in ways relevant for action research, especially for an action research strengthened through a critical confrontation with the requirements and shortcomings of mainstream research methods. The concept of habitus validity is presented as the outcome of such a critical confrontation or immanent critique. The discussion springs from the author’s experience through more than 20 years of conducting projects in action research and organizational learning in Norwegian work life and an equivalent number of years of studying conventional methodology, epistemology, and philosophy of science critically.