Suchergebnisse

Supported bilaterally by Sweden and Norway, the Scandinavian Action Research Development Program (ACRES - Action Research in Scandinavia) emphasized conceptualizing research questions and self-conscious writing processes for experienced action researchers. Participants came from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Holland, Great Britain, and the United States.A learning experiment in the tradition of Scandinavian industrial democracy, ACRES had both intellectual and organizational tensions common to action research projects. This book includes theoretical and historical overviews of action research, refl

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Action Research consists of 314 entries totaling around 600,000 words by people expert in their topic. What if it was treated as a corpus of data about the current state of action research and related matters? So treated, it can provide a valuable current perspective on what action research is, who uses it for what purpose, and how it is done. A companion paper by Bob Dick reports on what the encyclopedia has to say about current action research methodology. This paper does the same for theories/concepts used in action research. I review and comment on what the encyclopedia says about the broad array of theoretical perspectives and concepts that are often deployed in varying combinations in action research. I emphasize some of the key features of many approaches to action research and make it clear that action researchers borrow eclectically from other fields in orchestrating action research processes.

Understanding how action research can be practiced, taught, and learned in contemporary universities requires understanding the dominant structures that organize higher education in the 21st century. This article presents the neo-liberal and Taylorist structures affecting higher education and then places the practice and study of action research in this context to outline ways action research could contribute to an improved future for higher education.

Der Neokonservatismus der 1980er Jahre konnte den faktischen Widerspruch zwischen Sozialkonservatismus und Marktradikalismus, der schon Mitte der 1950er Jahre die politische Rechte maßgeblich prägte, nach Meinung des Autors nicht auflösen. Dennoch hielt der Großteil der Neokonservativen an der Vereinbarkeit der Widersprüche fest und sah die Lösung in einem Mehr an Markt und einem Weniger an Staat. Für den Bereich der Hochschulbildung bedeutet dies, die Universitäten zu einem reinen "Zulieferbetrieb" für die Wirtschaft zu machen. Mit Hilfe von verschiedenen Institutionen, sogenannten "Think Tanks", sollen die Konzepte der Industrie in die Entscheidungsgremien für Bildungspolitik geschleust werden. Ziel ist es, die Universitäten durch Wettbewerb um staatliche Gelder in Dienstleistungsunternehmen zu verwandeln, die ihre Ware "Bildung" nach kapitalistischen Verwertungsinteressen ausrichten. Der vorliegende Aufsatz untersucht die Beziehungen zwischen Liberalismus, Neoliberalismus und Neokonservatismus in der US-amerikanischen Bildungspolitik. Das Hauptargument lautet, dass keine substanzielle Beziehung zwischen Liberalismus und Konservatismus einerseits und Neoliberalismus und Neokonservatismus andererseits besteht. Stattdessen sind die bildungspolitischen Maßnahmen des Neoliberalismus als ein Staatsstreich gegen das amerikanische Bildungswesen anzusehen. (ICI2).

Action researchers have rarely focused attention on reforming higher education and I argue that this is a mistake. The article reviews some of my failed attempts to make AR a sustainable teaching, research, and extension strategy in my own university. These experiences show that AR works well in the classroom and in small and marginal projects but this small scale and marginality and invisibility also makes such efforts fragile and short-lived. We action researchers have yet to use AR strategies successfully to guide necessary reforms in the relation between universities and the extra-university stakeholders and to deepen collaborative relationships within universities among students, staff, and administrators.

"AR is not just one more social science "method"; it is a fundamentally
different way of conducting research and social change work together.
Participation in AR is not just a moral value but essential to successful AR
because the complexities of the problems addressed require the knowledge
and experience of a broad and diverse array of stakeholders. I argue that
there is no one ideal form of AR and that what is useful is situationally
dependent which is also why AR cannot respect or operate within the disciplinary
boundaries or departmental structures of academic. For these
reasons, Morten Levin and I prefer to call our work "pragmatic AR". To
complete the paper, I present two cases, one from industry and one from
community development, to show how I practice pragmatic AR in context." (author's abstract)

Book reviewed in this article:Ethnology: The People of the Plain: Class and Community in Lower Andalusia. David D. Gilmore.Ethnology: The City as Context: Urbanism and Behavioral Constraints in Seville. Irwin Press.