The Action Research Planner

206 Pages·2013·3.31 MB·English

The Action Research Planner
Stephen Kemmis • Robin McTaggart
Rhonda Nixon
The Action Research Planner
Doing Critical Participatory Action Research
1 3
Stephen Kemmis Rhonda Nixon
Charles Sturt University Victoria University
Wagga Wagga British Columbia
New South Wales Canada
Australia
Robin McTaggart
Griffith University
Gold Coast
Queensland
Australia
ISBN 978-981-4560-66-5 ISBN 978-981-4560-67-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-981-4560-67-2
Springer Singapore Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013951822
© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2014
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Contents
1 Introducing Critical Participatory Action Research .............................. 1
Why We Wrote this Book ............................................................................ 1
The Changing Field of Action Research ..................................................... 4
The Things Only Participatory Research Can Do ................................. 4
An Example: Recycling at Braxton High School, Canada ......................... 7
Action Research History: Different Kinds,
Foci and Purposes of Action Research ........................................................ 8
Different Kinds of Action Research ...................................................... 8
Changing foci of Action Research in Education ................................... 12
Different Purposes of Action Research ................................................. 14
Critical Participatory Action Research as a Disciplined
Way of Making Change ............................................................................... 18
The People who Typically Conduct Critical
Participatory Action Research ..................................................................... 21
An Example in Education ...................................................................... 23
Blurring Boundaries: Theorists and Practitioners,
Researchers and Practitioners ..................................................................... 25
Critical Participatory Action Research as a Practice-Changing Practice .... 26
2 A New View of Participation: Participation in Public Spheres ............. 33
Participation in Communication ................................................................. 33
Communicative Action and Communicative Space .................................... 34
Ten Key Features of Public Spheres: Comments
for Critical Participatory Action Researchers ............................................. 37
Conclusion: ‘Participation’ in Critical Participatory
Action Research is Participation in Public Spheres .................................... 48
3 A New View of Practice: Practices Held in Place
by Practice Architectures .......................................................................... 51
Defining Practice ......................................................................................... 51
Practices and Practice Architectures ........................................................... 53
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vi Contents
Practices and Practice Architectures in Critical Participatory
Action Research .......................................................................................... 59
Critical Participatory Action Research
as a Practice-Changing Practice ............................................................ 63
4 A New View of Research: Research Within Practice Traditions ............ 67
What’s Critical about Critical Participatory Action Research? ................... 67
Research Perspectives in Critical Participatory Action Research ............... 70
Critical Participatory Action Research as a Kind of Research .................... 73
Researching Practice from within Practice Traditions ................................ 76
Using the Practice Architectures Analysis Table to Find
a Felt Concern that will be the Focus of a Critical
Participatory Action Research Initiative ..................................................... 80
5 Doing Critical Participatory Action Research: The ‘Planner’ Part ..... 85
Practising Critical Participatory Action Research ....................................... 85
Critical Participatory Action Research in Education: Are
Our Practices Educational? ................................................................... 87
Reconnaissance ........................................................................................... 89
Opening Communicative Space—Establishing a Public Sphere .......... 90
Dialogues Between System and Lifeworld,
Strategic Action and Communicative Action ........................................ 92
Questions to Identify a Shared Felt Concern in Relation
to Our Practices and What Holds Our Practices in Place ...................... 95
An Initial Statement About What you Intend to Do .............................. 98
Planning ....................................................................................................... 100
Changing Practices and Practice Architectures ..................................... 102
The Product of Planning—A Collective Rationale
and Plan for Change .............................................................................. 103
Enacting the Plan and Observing How it Works ......................................... 105
Enacting and Observing: The Product ................................................... 107
Reflection .................................................................................................... 108
Reflection: The Product ......................................................................... 112
The Spiral of Cycles of Self-Reflection ...................................................... 112
6 Examples of Critical Participatory Action Research ............................. 115
Example 1: The Recycling Project at Braxton High School, Canada ......... 115
Determining Issues of Importance to Students Through
Focus Groups ......................................................................................... 115
Analysing and Interpreting Students’ Felt Concerns ............................. 116
Focusing on Students’ Concerns About the Environment ..................... 116
Shaping Projects with Volunteer Teachers ............................................ 116
Administering a Survey to Determine Whether Recycling
Habits were Problematic ....................................................................... 117
Purchasing and Publicizing Recycling Bins .......................................... 118
Contents vii
Monitoring Recycling Habits and Meeting
to Discuss What to do Next ................................................................. 118
Pooling Ideas to Solve Problems ......................................................... 119
Presenting Findings, and Re-Energizing the Group ............................ 119
Getting Involved with Other Students and Teachers
to Keep Momentum ............................................................................. 119
Example 2: The Self-Directed Learning Project
at Grace Elementary School, Canada ........................................................ 120
Determining How to Begin ................................................................. 121
Gathering Students’ Feedback ............................................................. 122
Analysing Students’ Feedback ............................................................ 122
Responding to Students’ Feedback Involves Many People ................. 122
Keeping Virtual Journals to Report Back to the Community .............. 123
Shaping Self-Directed Learning Time by Visiting
Another School .................................................................................... 123
Living Self-Directed Learning Time ................................................... 124
Addressing Tensions Between Project-Based
Learning and Test-Focused Understandings of Learning .................... 124
Reflecting on the Value of Self-Directed Learning ............................. 125
Example 3: The Graphic Novel Project at Joseph
Junior High School, Canada ...................................................................... 125
Gathering Student Feedback ............................................................... 126
Analysing Students’ Feedback with Students ..................................... 126
Planning and Learning About Visual and Digital
Texts with Students ............................................................................. 127
Reflecting on the Value of Multimodal
(Print, Visual, Digital) Explorations with Students ............................. 127
Example 4: The Teacher Talk Project in an Australian University ........... 127
Example 5: The Yirrkala Ganma Education Project: Critical
Participatory Action Research in an Indigenous Community ................... 135
The Concept of Ganma ........................................................................ 138
Ganma Education And The Practice Of Critical Participatory
Action Research .................................................................................. 141
Conclusion ................................................................................................. 146
7 Resources for Critical Participatory Action Researchers .................... 149
Resource 1: Creating a Public Sphere and Identifying
a Shared Felt Concern ............................................................................... 149
Identifying Educational Legitimation Deficits .................................... 152
Identifying More General Legitimation Deficits ................................. 153
Resource 2: Some Notes on Research Ethics for Critical Partici-
patory Action Researchers ......................................................................... 158
General Principles of Research Ethics: Respecting Persons,
Avoiding Harm, Justice and Beneficence ............................................ 159
Informed Consent and Assent .............................................................. 160
Dependent Relationships ..................................................................... 162
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Confidentiality and Anonymity ........................................................... 163
Mutual Trust and Mutual Vulnerability ............................................... 164
Additional Reading .............................................................................. 167
Resource 3: Critical Participatory Action Research Group
Protocols: Ethical Agreements for Participation in Public Spheres .......... 168
Resource 4: Principles of Procedure for Action Researchers .................... 172
Establish Working Rules for the Collaborating Group: ...................... 172
Observe Protocol ................................................................................. 172
Involve Participants ............................................................................. 173
Negotiate with Those Affected ............................................................ 173
Report Progress ................................................................................... 173
Obtain Explicit Authorisation before You Observe ............................. 173
Negotiate Descriptions of People’s Work and Accounts
of Others’ Points of View .................................................................... 173
Negotiate Reports for Various Levels of Release ................................ 174
Accept Responsibility for Maintaining Confidentiality ...................... 174
Retain the Right to Report Your Work ................................................ 174
Make Your Principles of Procedure Binding and Known ................... 174
Resource 5: Keeping a Journal .................................................................. 175
Resource 6: Gathering Evidence, Documenting ....................................... 176
Some Cautionary Notes ....................................................................... 186
Resource 7: Reporting: For Yourself and Others ...................................... 187
Reporting Action Research Undertaken as Part
of a Course of Study ............................................................................ 188
Resource 8: Choosing an Academic Partner to Work
with a Critical Participatory Action Research Initiative ........................... 189
Index ............................................................................................................... 195
List of Figures
Fig. 1.1 The action research spiral ................................................................... 19
Fig. 3.1 The theory of practice and practice architectures................................ 57
Fig. 6.1 N orth East Arnhem Land, showing the Yolngu
community of Yirrkala ........................................................................ 136
Fig. 6.2 Artist’s impression of Ganma .............................................................. 140
Fig. 7.1 My story writing blog ......................................................................... 178
Fig. 7.2 Statistics for ‘My story writing blog’ .................................................. 179
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List of Tables
Table 1.1 Theorists’ theories and practitioners’ practices ................................ 25
Table 1.2 Researchers’ theories and practitioners practices ............................. 26
Table 3.1 Braxton High School’s recycling project practices
and practice architectures ................................................................. 60
Table 4.1 Four perspectives on research .......................................................... 71
Table 4.2 Five traditions of research on practice ............................................. 71
Table 4.3 Views of practice and the research approaches they imply .............. 74
Table 4.4 Collecting evidence about practices and practice
architectures from different standpoints ........................................... 75
Table 4.5 Investigating practices and the practice
architectures that support them......................................................... 81
Table 5.1 Investigating practices and the practice architectures
that support them .............................................................................. 96
Table 5.2 Reconnaissance: Identifying a collective felt concern
using the theory of practice architectures ......................................... 97
Table 7.1 Investigating practices and the practice architectures
that support them .............................................................................. 154
Table 7.2 Reconnaissance: Identifying a collective felt concern
using the theory of practice architectures ......................................... 155
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