“To Know Is Not Enough”: Action Research as the Core of Educational Research

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

Each of the papers engages with a different aspect of the meaning of knowledge and connects that conception with implications for action. Paper 1 addresses the specific kind of theory generated with the research is directed towards improvement, rather than knowledge generation alone. Paper 2 highlights knowledge as a social practice – the action often requires a form of “unlearning”. Paper 3 focuses on the constraints of the neo-liberal political context on social justice action. Paper 4 argues that knowledge capable of generating more just practice requires an ethics that acknowledges power relations. Taken together, these papers invite participants into discussion of the ways in which in which action research can address educational issues in the national and global context.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Action Research

Chair

• Susan E. Noffke, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Papers

• To Know Is Not Enough, or Is It? - Jack Whitehead, Liverpool Hope University

• Unlearning what you know: A narrative analysis of university and school teacher reflective journals - Patricia Thomson, University of Nottingham

• Whose knowledge, Which scope of action? Reflections on Teacher Action Research in Australia - Marie T. Brennan, Victoria University

• Ethics, Caring, and Power: Grounding Our Work in Theory and Practice - Susan E. Noffke, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Discussant

• Gary L. Anderson, New York University