International Action Researchers Talk About Tension in Their Work With Practitioners

• In Event: Defining Action Research Through Different Lenses

Abstract

Our paper is based on an interview research study of international action research
scholars’ insights about how they enact the epistemologies they subscribe to and
what the role of tension was in their work with practitioners. Because our
interviewees are often cited in scholarship, and there is confusion within such
scholarship about how to theorize tension and to enact action research
epistemologies that see tension as integral to learning, we address this gap in our
paper. We report on one theme: Understanding tension in teacher-researcher
communities, which we believe opens up new conversations about what it means
to take seriously the conference theme, “To know is not enough.”

Authors

• Rhonda L. Nixon, University of Victoria

• Susan L. Lytle, University of Pennsylvania

• Jill A. McClay, University of Alberta