Action Research

1. Action Research Kristian Rautiainen & Soile Pohjonen

2. Types of researcher/subject relationships Researcher initiates the project Subject involvement Low High 1. Demography 2. Experiments and surveys Low Researcher involvement 3. Participant observation and ethnography 4. Action research High

3. Subject initiates the project Subject involvement Low High 6. Internship 7. Educational interventions and facilitation Low Researcher involvement 5. Contract research and expert consulting 8. Process consulting and clinical inquiry High

4. Working definition • Action research is a participatory, democratic process concerned with developing practical knowing in the pursuit of worthwhile human purposes, grounded in a participatory worldview which we believe is emerging at this moment • It seeks to bring together action and reflection, thoery and practice, in participation with others, in the pursuit of practical solutions to issues of pressing concern to people, and more generally the flourishing of individual persons and their communities

5. Pathways of Action Research practice • First-person action research/practice • Inquiring approach of researcher to his/her own life • Acting with awareness and assessing effects in the outside world while acting • Second-person action research/practice • Inquiring face-to-face with other into issues of mutual concern • Includes development of communities of inquiry and learning organizations • Third-person action research/practice • A wider community of inquiry involving persons who have an impersonal quality

6. Characteristics of Action Research Human flourishing Participation and democracy Emergent developmental forum Practical issues Knowledge- in-action

7. Dimensions of a participatory worldview Meaning and purpose Relational ecological form Participatory evolutionary reality Practical being and acting Extended epistemology

8. Questions for validity and quality in inquiry Questions about significance Questions of emergence and enduring consequence Questions of relational practice Questions of outcome and practice Questions about plural ways of knowing

9. Issues as choice-points and questions for quality in action research • Is the action research: • Explicit in developing a praxis of relational-participation? • Guided by reflexive concern for practical outcome? • Inclusive of a plurality of knowing? • Ensuring conceptual-theoretical integrity? • Embracing ways of knowing beyond the intellect? • Intentionally choosing appropriate research methods? • Worthy of the term significant? • Emerging towards a new and enduring infrastructure?

10. Apollonian Rational, linear, systematic, controlling and explicit approach to the process of cycling between reflection and action Each reflection phase reflects on data from the last action phase and applies the thinking to planning the next action phase Dionysian Imaginal, expressive, spiralling, diffuse, impromptu and tacit approach to the interplay between making sense and action Informative Descriptive of domain of expertise Transformative Exploring practice being transformative of it Inquiry cultures

11. Ways of knowing • Experiential knowing • Knowing through the immediacy of perceiving • Presentational knowing • Emerges from experiential knowing • A form of expressing meaning through some media • Propositional knowing • Knowing through ideas and theories • Practical knowing • Knowing ‘how to’ do something

12. Action Research Model [Cummings & Huse, 1989] • Problem identification • Consultation with a behavioral science expert • Data gathering and preliminary diagnosis • Feedback to key client or group • Joint diagnosis of problem • Joint action planning • Action • Data gathering after action

13. Process Consultation • Process Consultation is a set of activities on the part of the consultant that help the client to perceive, understand, and act upon the process events the occur in the client’s environment

14. The Process Consultation model • Joint diagnosis by the client and consultant • The consultant shares his skills with the client • The consultant must be an expert on giving help • The client must learn to see the problem for himself • The client must make the ultimate decision on what remedy to apply • This way problems will be solved more permanently • The client learns skills necessary to solve new problems as they arise

15. Stages in PC relationship • Initial contact with the client organization • Defining the relationship, psychological contract • Selecting a setting and method of work • Diagnostic interventions and data gathering • Confrontative interventions • Reducing involvement and termination

16. The psychological contract • The formal decision as to how much time will be devoted to the consultation, what general services will be performed, and the form and amount of payment that will be used • The informal “psychological contract” that involves the client’s implicit (and sometimes explicit) expectations of what he will gain from the relationship as well as the obligations he will accept, and the consultant’s implicit (and sometimes explicit) expectations of what he will give and gain

17. Lewin’s model in PC • Unfreezing: Creating motivation and readiness to change through • disconfirmation or lack of confirmation, • creation of guilt or anxiety, and • provision of psychological safety

18. Changing through cognitive restructuring: Helping the client to see things, judge things, feel things, and react to things differently based on a new point of view obtained through • identifying with a new role model, mentor, etc. • scanning the environment for new relevant information

19. Refreezing: Helping the client to integrate the new point of view into • the total personality and self-concept • significant relationships

20. Who is the Client? • Contact clients approach the consultant initially • Intermediate clients get involved in early meetings or planning next steps • Primary clients own a problem for which they want help • Ultimate clients may or may not be directly involved with the consultant, but their welfare and interest must be considered in planning further interventions

21. Strategic objectives of initial interventions • Provide help • Diagnose • Learning about what the initial client wants • Why is he calling now? • What are the issues? • Who are likely to be affected? • What is expected of the consultant? • Build an intervention team • Shared responsibility between the client and the consultant

22. Types of interventions • Exploratory interventions • “Can you tell me a bit more?”, “Can you describe the situation?”, “What do you have in mind?” • Diagnostic interventions • “How do you see the problem?”, “How can I help?”, “Why is this more of a problem now?”

23. Types of interventions • Action alternative interventions • “What have you tried to do about this yourself?”, “Have you considered either of these two alternatives?”, “What would be the advantage and disadvantage of doing the following thing?” • Confrontive interventions • “Why don’t you do...?”, “You must define your goals more clearly!”, “Why did you come to me with this?”

24. References • Cummings, Thomas G., and Huse, Edgar F., Organization Development and Change. 4th edition, 1989. (Kirjastossa, en muista oliko Kauppis vai TuTa) • Handbook of Action Research, Peter Reason and Hilary Bradbury (editors), Sage Publications, 2001. (TuTan kirjastossa) • Schein, Edgar H., Process Consultation Volume II: Lessons for Managers and Consultants. Addison-Wesley, 1987. (Jarnolla henkilökohtainen kirja hyllyssä) • Stringer, Ernest T., Action Research. 2nd edition, Sage Publications, 1999. (Catalla kirja hyllyssä)