Hogan, Pádraig and Malone, Anthony (2023) Tackling a lingering infirmity: On the nature and warrant of action research in education. British Educational Research Journal, 49 (3). pp. 439-454. ISSN 0141-1926

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Abstract

The BERA initiative on promoting Close-to-Practice (CtP) research raises new challenges for action research, particularly as uncertainties about the stand-ing and rigour of action research were expressed in the report of the education panel for the 2015 Research Excellence Framework (REF) in the United Kingdom. The work of tackling these challenges is essential in advancing CtP research, and it discloses, in turn, new possibilities. In this paper we review some pioneer-ing developments in action research and analyse the difficulties it has experienced in securing parity of standing with other forms of research. We argue that action research is more than, and sometimes other than, a social science. We seek to show that if action research is to be recognised by credentials that are its own, and judged by criteria that are proper to it, not only does it lose any lower standing. Rather, it becomes a major pathway, with deep roots in the criti-cal traditions of Western practical philosophy, through which the defining purposes of education itself, as a distinctive human practice, are ascertained and affirmed, pursued and appraised.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	domains of relationship; educational experience; ethical orientation; inherent purposes;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Education
Item ID:	18394
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3849
Depositing User:	Dr. Padraig Hogan,
Date Deposited:	16 Apr 2024 13:59
Journal or Publication Title:	British Educational Research Journal
Publisher:	Wiley
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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