EDUCATIONAL ACTION RESEARCH - THE DEATH OF MEANING - OR, THE PRACTITIONERS RESPONSE TO UTOPIAN DISCOURSE

Authors
Citation
Mj. Newby, EDUCATIONAL ACTION RESEARCH - THE DEATH OF MEANING - OR, THE PRACTITIONERS RESPONSE TO UTOPIAN DISCOURSE, Educational research, 39(1), 1997, pp. 77-86
Citations number
16
Categorie Soggetti
Education & Educational Research
Journal title
ISSN journal
00131881
Volume
39
Issue
1
Year of publication
1997
Pages
77 - 86
Database
ISI
SICI code
0013-1881(1997)39:1<77:EAR-TD>2.0.ZU;2-0
Abstract
Consciousness of the distance between scientific research traditions i n education and classroom practice has now become a presupposition of educational action research. The reasons for this distance are located in, and explained by, the reflexivity of knowledge, which draws atten tion to the hitherto unacknowledged personal element in knowledge clai ms: they reflect value-preferences, hidden agendas and hidden assumpti ons. Therefore an emphasis has been placed by many recent action resea rchers on the self of the investigator as an influence not simply on t he outcomes, but also the language and techniques of the research. Man y see the self as becoming, rightly, the main focus of the action rese arch project, and indeed the main focus of valid educational research as a whole. We give due weight to such insights and argue that they re quire educational research outside of the action research tradition to display reflexive self-awareness and also to understand the importanc e of practitioner-knowledge in its own right. On the other hand, we ar gue for a broader approach to educational research, without which the action researcher is bound to remain detached from traditions of thoug ht which can enable her to locate her recommendations for practice wit hin a meaningful long-term and broad perspective on what the education alist is striving to achieve. Whilst the fact of reflexivity prevents us from returning to the naive view that research findings can have th e objective status of timeless and more or less context-free truths, i t does not condemn us to a view of knowledge which is no more than a m ultitude of personal accounts of particular situations. Both extremes being unintelligible, a view of educational research as advance into n ew knowledge becomes possible in which various methodologies are vital , but in which no particular methodology suffices without the others. In its conclusions, the paper draws upon Paddy Walsh's acclaimed, if d emanding, work to support the position that the gap between theory and practice requires such a synthesis of approaches, and that this synth esistic approach must be adopted if the action researcher is to have a chance of assuring anyone that she has made advances in educational p ractice.