Schwab’s Challenge and the Unfulfilled Promise of Action Research

In Paul Smeyers & Marc Depaepe (eds.), Educational Research: Ethics, Social Justice, and Funding Dynamics. Springer Verlag. pp. 163-173 (2018)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Action research began as an ambitious epistemological and social intervention. As the concept has become reified, packaged for methodology textbooks and professional development workshops, it has degenerated into a cure that may be worse than the disease. The point is not the trivial one that action research, like any practice, sometimes shows up in cheap or corrupt forms. The very idea that action research already exists as a live option is mystifying, distracting us from the deep challenge that action research ultimately represents. Though Joseph Schwab is sometimes credited as a forerunner of action research, it is likely that he would see the new talk of ‘the teacher as researcher’ as indicative of the very epitomization of which he warned. Dewey’s new conception of knowledge, action, and communication—and the vision of the teacher as learner it entails—requires nothing short of a radical rethinking of teaching and inquiry, schooling and teacher education. This essay recalls the promise of action research, exploring its pitfalls, and attempts to get clear on the ongoing challenge it represents.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 92,758

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The Potential of Deweyan-Inspired Action Research.Jody L. Stark - 2014 - Education and Culture 30 (2):87-101.
Philosophy, Methodology and Action Research.Wilfred Carr - 2006 - Journal of Philosophy of Education 40 (4):421-435.
Philosophy, methodology and action research.Wilfred Carr - 2006 - Journal of Philosophy of Education 40 (4):421–435.
Action Research and Policy.Lorraine Foreman-Peck & Jane Murray - 2008 - Journal of Philosophy of Education 42 (supplement):145-163.
Action research and policy.Lorraine Foreman-Peck & Jane Murray - 2008 - Journal of Philosophy of Education 42 (s1):145-163.
Role of Methodology in Action Research.Kubilay Kaptan - 2016 - Journal of Philosophy of Education 50 (4).
Does Action Research Have a Future? A Reply to Higgins.Lorraine Foreman‐Peck & Ruth Heilbronn - 2018 - Journal of Philosophy of Education 52 (1):126-143.
Action Research As an Ethics Praxis Method.Richard P. Nielsen - 2016 - Journal of Business Ethics 135 (3):419-428.
Is perceiving bodily action?Kenneth Aizawa - 2019 - Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 18 (5):933-946.

Analytics

Added to PP
2020-06-17

Downloads
3 (#1,724,063)

6 months
1 (#1,507,095)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references