Spiralling towards transformational action research: philosophical and practical journeys

Abstract

The two-stranded spiral shown in Figure 1 represents two aspects of the authors' journey in becoming critical. The journey, conveyed through discussion, reflexive accounts and illustrations of particular and summary achievements, shows how Carr and Kemmis's work has influenced the authors as action researchers, both individually and together, in nursing, over 16 years. The first strand unfurls their journey as they learned to develop their philosophical and theoretical understandings of action research as collaborative, emancipatory and transformational. They show how they now use innovative and creative methodologies to transform practice and, simultaneously, develop critical practice theory that draw on assumptions from different worldviews in the same study. Their Figure 1. Parallel and deepening philosophical and practical journeys 334 A. Titchen and K. Manleysecond strand is concerned with the creation of critical communities of healthcare practitioners who undertake action research to transform themselves, practices and organisations. This strand shares the practicalities of an action research team genuinely involving stakeholders in the collaborative, democratic design of projects, their implementation and evaluation. Both strands are concerned with preparing practitioners as researchers of their own practice and with human flourishing as both the end and means of action research. Seven insights are presented. Figure 1. Parallel and deepening philosophical and practical journeys

Stakeholder analysis in projects: Challenges in using current guidelines in the real world

“…During the planning of the research, we discussed forms of participation and collaboration and how to balance our research interests and the project managers' interests in engaging in the research project [29]. We decided to collaborate and communicate with project managers by acting as process facilitators [30], instructing them on how to carry out a stakeholder analysis containing the activities presented in the above and interviewing them about their experiences in using the guidelines. This way, we were able to make our professional knowledge interact with the project managers' local knowledge [28].…”

The need for systems change: reflections on knowledge translation and organizational change

“…2004). Equally, within action research and action science, spirals or cycles of learning, doing and reflection are well‐recognized and embedded processes (Titchen & Manley 2006). However, how well this underlying dynamic is understood within KT is an important theoretical and practical question.…”

“…This cyclical pattern is not unique to innovation: Senge (1990) describes reinforcing (divergent) and balancing (convergent) behaviours and, within quality and safety literature processes such as PDSA (plan, do, study, act), there are implicit connections between periods of convergent and divergent behaviour (Thor et al 2004). Equally, within action research and action science, spirals or cycles of learning, doing and reflection are well-recognized and embedded processes (Titchen & Manley 2006). However, how well this underlying dynamic is understood within KT is an important theoretical and practical question.…”

Professional development in the context of Healthy Schools in Quebec

“…A research-action strategy, in line with the PD model, was adopted (Savoie-Zajc, 2001;Titchen and Manley, 2006). The knowledge generated in this context was both 'instrumental', due to its short-term utility for participating milieu, and conceptual, because of new insights it provided on how to conceive and understand certain phenomena (Cronbach et al, 1980).…”