Jane Spiro

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Action Research

• Jane Spiro
• Oxford Brookes University
• Ongoing negotiation (Clifford)
• Expansive cycles (Engestrom)
• Transformation of both culture and the self
  (Vygotsky)
• Personal growth and renewal (McNiff)

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Why action research compared to other paradigms?

• Ideas of knowledge epistemology
• Knowledge is non-finite, slippery, subject to
  change and interpretation the swamp
• OR
• Knowledge is a truth to be reached by finding and
  interpreting information the mountain (Schon)

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Ideas of learning

• We might look at learning as a response to what
  is other and different, to what challenges,
  irritates, or even disturbs us. OR
• We may look at learning as the acquisition of
  something we want to possess.

(Biesta 2006)
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Ideas of data

• Data is
• gathered scientifically
• can be quantified and defined
• is neutral.
• OR
• Data
• is gathered through observation and experience
  (Eisner 1993)
• influences practice
• is hugely complex
• Is subject to a wide variety of interpretations
• is context-sensitive.

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Slippery truths

• All texts in the social sciences are in one way
  or another fictions, constructions, and we need
  to treat them as such, not as inviolable,
  unassailable statements of scientific truth
  (Geertz 2006)

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Fuzzy generalisations

• something may happen but without a measure of
  its probability. It is a qualified
  generalisation carrying the idea of possibility
  but no certainty. (Bassey 2001)

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Soft outcomes

• Researchers make a distinction between the
  humanities and the sciences value judgements
  between what is legitimately rigorous and
  objective and what is soft and stupid. (Olson
  on Geertz 2006)

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What can action research do which the others
cannot do?
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What is the researchers role in each paradigm?
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What does that mean on the ground for how the
researcher gathers and interprets information?
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Research paradigms world views

• All-embracing
  Piecemeal
• Law-making Law-breaking
• Journey to complete understanding (Deutsch)
• Journey without an end (Popper)
  
• General
  Specific
• Reality as ordered
  Reality as messy (Schon)
• (Einstein)
• Control
  Describe
• Leads to closure
  Leads to opening

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Research and creative practice

• a postmodern artist or writer is in the position
  of a philosopher the work he produces are not
  in principle governed by pre-established rules,
  -------
• The artist and the writer are working without
  rules in order to formulate the rules of what
  will have been done. (Lyotard 1984)

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References

• Bassey, M. (1998) Fuzzy generalisation an
  approach to building educational theory
• Paper presented at the British Educational
  Research Association Annual conference Queens
  University Belfast, 27th 30th August 1998
  http//www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/000000801.
  htm
• Biesta, G.J. J. (2006) Beyond Learning
  Democratic Education for a Human Future
  Boulder Paradigm Publishers
• Bryman, A. (1988) Quantity and Quality in Social
  Research. London Routledge.
• Clifford, J. and Marcus, G. (eds) (1986) Writing
  Culture The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography
  Berkeley University of California Press
• Eisner, E. (1993) Forms of Understanding and the
  Future of Educational Research
• Educational Researcher October 1993
• Lyotard, F. (1984) The Postmodern Condition a
  report on knowledge Manchester Manchester
  University Press
• McNiff, J. (2002) Action Research principles and
  practice London Routledge
• McNiff, J. (2006) Action Research living theory
  London Sage
• Olson, G.A. (2006) Clifford Geertz on Ethography
  and Social Construction interview in JAC Vol.
  11 Issue 2 http//www.jacweb.org/Archived_volumes
  /
• Schon, D. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner
  how professionals think in action New York
  Basic
• www.jeanmcniff.com
• www.actionresearch.net

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