action research

... at the heart of learning and transformation.

Action Research is an umbrella term covering the accelerating number of approaches to learning-in-action being innovated in fields like development, education, health, management, regeneration, human ecology... and more.

At its heart, action research is about learning from experience, heightening our awareness of power, and intending to work for a better world.

I love it because anyone can get started and get involved in finding out more about their lives, communities and organisations to make a positive change. Action Research asks 'who doesn't have a voice?' and then offers practical ways of getting marginalised voices heard.

I also love it because its questions can go really deep. Action Research, in genuinely inquiring hands, can lead us to ask fundamental questions of what it is to be alive and committed to strengthening relationships - both between people, and between humans and the 'more-than-human' world.

It's also a 'new paradigm' academic discipline, breaking down boundaries (or 'dualism'), advocating collaborative research with others, rather than on them, contending that more traditional research approaches may not be sufficiently aware of their own power, values and worldviews ... and that this means they are probably preventing people from finding their voices and working effectively for personal, community and planetary health.

this page is under continual revision - come back soon - and offer me feedback!

2007 'Action Research CPD' programmes now running in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Fife