Action research methods Sample Clauses

Action research methods. AR is a collaborative research process that seeks to ‘create participative communities of inquiry’ where ‘inquiry and action evolve and address questions and issues that are significant for those who participate as co-researchers’ (Reason and Xxxxxxxx, 2013, p1). It differs in a number of respects from more ‘traditional’ research approaches because it is principally concerned with doing research with rather than on participants. AR centres all research participants in all of the research process as co- creators of knowledge. Utilising this approach to learning, co-producers engage in cycles of action (where they gather evidence and explore issues) and reflection (where they make sense of the action together and plan further action and learning). Importantly, AR is experiential and practice-based (rooted in everyday life contexts); it may also be experimental in that it seeks to innovate thinking and practice about how participation is understood and enacted. AR is not a prescribed process or a set of pre-determined research methods. Rather it is guided by a set of varied principles. For example, it: • is a set of practices that responds to people's desire to act creatively in the face of practical and often pressing issues in their lives in organizations and communities; • calls for engagement with people in collaborative relationships, opening new ‘communicative spaces’ in which dialogue and development can flourish; • draws on many ways of knowing, both in the evidence that is generated in inquiry and its expression in diverse forms of presentation as we share learning with wider audiences; • is values oriented, seeking to address issues of significance concerning the flourishing of human persons, their communities, and the wider ecology in which we participate; • is a living, emergent process that cannot be predetermined but changes and develops as those engaged deepen their understanding of the issues to be addressed and develop their capacity as co-inquirers both individually and collectively (Reason and Xxxxxxxx, 2013, p3). Importantly, research participants also co-create AR’s methods of inquiry throughout the learning process. Capturing the learning in its many forms takes place through the AR cycle and this learning is utilised in reflection and further planning using the co-created methods that are relevant to participants. The methods utilised by the Partispace ARPs are explored throughout the report (and include visual, aural and textual).