Validity as a Matter of Practice: Criteria to Guide Participatory Action Research Dissertations and Theses

• In Event: Roundtable Session 52
  In Roundtable Session: Action Research in Teaching and Teacher Education

Abstract

This paper proposes a set of validity criteria to serve as guidance for students and faculty in conducting, reporting and evaluating participatory action research dissertations and theses in universities across the globe. What constitutes good action research continues to be debated and criteria have been offered, but few have been richly explicated. The set of criteria proposed is anchored in a holistic validity framework, supported by examples from practice, and informed by a synthesis of past criteria. As a field hoping to flourish as a critical educational science, efforts to strengthen ideas around how validity/quality can be addressed in dissertations and theses can generate understanding and discourse among interested stakeholders and further the goals of the field itself.

Author

• Emily F. Cole, University at Buffalo - SUNY