Constructive developmental interiority: Deliberately transformative action research

Abstract

This paper focuses on the process and theory of action-research for transformation (ART) targeting individual transformation as a required means for global change. Addressing the lack of a practical framework to organize and report transformation, we conceptualise, identify and demonstrate an approach by linking ART with Interiority and Constructive Development Theory. Interiority focuses on the individual’s sense-making as it relates to the sensed world and provides direction for data to be collected. Crucially, the individual’s capacity for sense-making impacts how data are identified, experienced, interpreted and evaluated. It is shifts in this capacity that constitute fundamental transformation required to better handle complexity and ambiguity - intrinsic to ART. We propose Constructive Developmental Interiority (CDI) that provides a lens to recognise, analyse and frame constructive developmental shifts. Two case studies are presented in which researchers engaged in applying CDI for transformation. Both cases highlight, through first-person action-research and reflexive collaboration, that although the will to address developmental transformational challenges was an espoused motivation, its misalignment with the capacities for transformative change is always a possibility. Applying CDI reveals the nature of the challenge (time, effort and support), how transitions were made, and the potential for transformational impact.

Methodology for a time of eco-social planetary crisis: Action research helping transformations happen

“…The result is participatory research that is attuned to the complexities of conflict-affected settings, inclusively rigorous and potentially transformative. Butler et al (2023) illustrate the importance of reflexivity with reference to theory about interiority and Constructive Development Theory (CDI). These allow for handling complexity and ambiguitywhich are intrinsic to our polycrisis.…”