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ACTION RESEARCH
Reflecting the social situation and the aspiration to create change is also
an important part of action research and this connects with my research on
various levels. Bridget Somekh points out that “action researchers aim to
act morally and promote social justice through research that is politically
informed and personally engaged"."! However, this does not mean that
the research is successful only if the action achieves a change in the social
situation. In fact, others contest that “it does not matter if the social situation
does not reach successful closure; it probably will not because any solution
allows new questions to emerge. What does matter is that you show your own
process of learning, and explain how your new learning has helped your work
within the situation”.5°?
Cohen et al. list some of the defining characteristics of action research,
summing up that it:
+ makes for practical problem-solving as well as expanding scientific
knowledge
+ enhances the competencies of participants
+ is collaborative
s is undertaken directly in situ
s uses feedback from data in an ongoing cyclical process
s seeks to understand particular complex social situations
« seeks to understand the processes of change within social systems
s is undertaken within an agreed framework of ethics
s seeks to improve the quality of human actions
« focuses on those problems that are of immediate concern to practitioners
¢ is participatory
« frequently uses case study
« tends to avoid the paradigm of research that isolates and controls
variables
« is formative, such that the definition of the problem, the aims and
methodology may alter during the process of action research
« includes evaluation and reflection
« is methodologically eclectic
¢ contributes to a science of education
s strives to render the research usable and shareable by participants
« is dialogical and celebrates discourse
+ hasa critical purpose in some forms
« strives to be emancipatory™
55.
a
Bridget Somekh: Action Research: a Methodology for Change and Development, Maidenhead,
Open University Press, 2006, 7.
552 McNiff-Lomax-Whitehead: You and Your Action Research Project, 13.
553 Cohen-Manion-Morrison: Research Methods in Education, 299.