I was initially drawn to the definition of action from Dick (2000) who simply outlines ‘a family of research methodologies which pursue action and research outcomes at the same time’. In its essence an approach which supports the improvement of practice.  

In some of the work that I do for LCF I am involved with teaching research methods to MA students which means that a lot of my prior experience is routed in social science research. McAteer (2013) discusses the issue of culturally embedded ‘scientific’ research and the impact that this has on researchers developing ‘problem-posing (rather than problem solving) dialogic practice’ that questions out understanding of complex social situations. It was interesting to begin considering a much more reflective and value-based approach to research. I was drawn to the work of Carr (2006) and Elliott (2000) in considering the philosophical approach and moral nature and purpose of action research in the first instance.  

When beginning to consider what I wanted to research for this project I looked to the framework developed by McNiff and Whitehead (2002) which outlined a way through a research project starting with reviewing current practice:  

  1. Identify an aspect that we want to investigate  
  1. Imagine a way forward  
  1. Try it out, and  
  1. Take stock of what happens.  

I was initially drawn to explore a current issue that I have been experiencing in my role at Intellectual Property Educator which was lack of support for students wanting to investigate or register patents. I thought that this action research unit could provide me with the opportunity to explore whether what I considered a gap in our offer was in fact a problem for students and graduates and consider what could be put into place to support this. I began to brainstorm my initial ideas on a Miro board (Figure 1).  

Figure 1: A screenshot from the Miro board that I started to explore my initial action research project ideas.

 

Reference list:  

  • Carr, W. (2006) ‘Philosophy, methodology and action research’, Journal of Philosophy of Education, 40(4): 421–35.  
  • Dick, B. (2000) ‘A beginner’s guide to action research’. Available at: http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/arp/guide.html (accessed 20th December 2022). 
  • Elliott, J. (2000) ‘Doing action research, doing philosophy’, Prospero, 6: 82–100. 
  • McAteer, M (2013) Action Research in Education. London: Sage.  
  • McIntyre, A. (2007) Participatory Action Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.  
  • McNiff, J., with Whitehead, J. (2002) Action Research: Principles and Practice. 2nd edn. London: Routledge.