EDSE 606: Collaborative Action Research in Education

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Ed Sec 606: Collaborative Action Research in Education

Instructors: Dr. Terry Carson

Office Hours: Thursdays 4.00 - 5.00, Fridays 11:30 - 12:30

Telephone: 492-3674

"No research without action, no action without research"

-- Kurt Lewin

An Historical Note:

Action research has its roots in a resistance to the dominance of positivistic social science and scientific management. Many of the early experiments with action research can be traced to the work of the German social psychologist Kurt Lewin. Lewin, a student of Ernst Cassirer, fled Nazi Germany in 1933. Coming first to the University of Iowa, and later joining the faculties of the New School for Social Research, Columbia University, and MIT, Lewin and his colleagues experimented with social change at the local level. Their projects included efforts to democratize industrial management, and to help communities to combat racial and religious prejudice.

Action research had three features that self-consciously differentiated it from the social research of the time: it was participatory, self reflective, and explicitly committed to social change. The action research orientation to simultaneously implement change while doing research subsequently launched a research tradition that has, over the years, been characterized by a dynamic questioning of the relationship among research, social theory and the quality of social life. As social theories have changed, action research has changed too as it has continued to occupy a dialogical space between social theories and social practices. This dialogue continues, and in the past decade or so new forms of action research have emerged which now draw upon postmodernism, postcolonialism and psychoanalysis, as well as on phenomenology, hermeneutics, and critical social theory.

Action Research in Education:

The tradition of action research in education dates almost from the inception of action research itself. Beginning in the late 1940s, Stephen Corey and Arthur Foshay launched the "teacher-as-researcher" movement at Columbia University Teachers College to foster teacher professionalism and to build classroom research cultures. In the intervening years, action research has waxed and waned in education as a vehicle for participatory change, professional development, school restructuring and curriculum reform. Through these times action research has continued to hold an attraction for educators as a democratic alternative to administratively imposed change, promising to bridge the so-called "theory-practice gap". At the same time there have been critics. On one side action research has stood accused of lacking the necessary rigour of accepted social science research methodologies, on the other side it has been taken to task for imposing unecessary and unrealistice expectations on the work of teachers teachers.

Course Outline:

This course on Collaborative Action Research will examine the traditions, practices and possibilities that action research holds for professional/personal development, and for institutional and social change. The primary emphasis of the course will be on exploring possibilities for using action research in one’s life. To this end, participants are asked to critically evaluate the traditions, the methods, and the practices of action research in the light their own interests and situtations.

Self, other and context will form the focal points of this inquiry into personal possibilities for action research. In terms of the self, we are concerned with subjectivity and what action research does to the person who undertakes it. With respect to the other, we will consider the relationships with others who are likely to be affected by the action research. Questions of ethics will be of particular interest in this respect. In terms of the setting we are concerned with schools, universities, hospitals, communities, etc. as the sites where action research might be undertaken. We focus both on how settings produce demands for change and how working within certain settings, like schools and universities structure thinking and action.

The course has three components:

1. The Social and Intellectual Projects of Action Research

-- building democratic institutions

-- practitioner involvement

-- participatory social change

-- personal professional development

-- critique of "traditional research"

-- linking of thought and action

2. Possibilities for Action Research

-- exploration of selves, others and work settings

-- working principles and cultural styles of action research

-- procedures of action research

-- scholarly resources

3. Practices of Action Research

-- examples of action research practices will draw upon a range of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary influences, including complexity theory, hermeneutic phenomenology, postmodern philosophy, and psychoanalysis.

Course Texts:

Required Text: (available at the U of A Bookstore)

Carson, Terrance and Sumara, Dennis (Eds.). Action Research as a Living Practice, (New York: Peter Lang Publishers, 1997)

Recommended:

Janesick, V. Stretching Exercises for Qualitative Research, (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishers 1998)

There will be a $15.00 charge for photocopying.

Assignments:

Précis

Individual class members will be asked to provide a one-page précis of a particular course reading to be used as the basis for class discussion. One’s turn will probably come around every three or four weeks.

Action Research Critique

A critical/constructive review of a description of an action research project drawn from one of the professional journals. e.g. Educational Action Research, Theory Into Practice, etc.

Reflections on Action Research: A Commonplace Book

Participants are asked to keep a "commonplace book" throughout the course. The commonplace book consists of personal narratives, thoughts, reflections, observations, notes, memos, etc. about action research and personal/professional/institutional change. The commonplace book forms the basis for conversations that will lead to the shaping of personal action research possibilities. To this end you will be asked to assemble periodic "conversational notes" on your commonplace book which will then serve as points of dialogue between yourself and the course instructors. It is recommended that you share these conversational notes with the instructors at least 3 or 4 times during the term. Ultimately, the commonplace book will form the "raw material" for the final course paper which will consider personal action research possibilities.