Critical action research

A topic in research methodology

Action research is research that has a practical purpose. Some commentators go beyond that and consider action research should be a social and political act, that is ‘critical action research’. This requires critical analysis to locate the causes of society’s inequities:

“…directly informing practice is not the role of critical social theory and that its primary utility is in identifying issues and describing contexts and processes that create and maintain inequality.”

Hadfield, 2012, p.572

Carr and Kemmis (1986) identify a role for educational researchers, such that the research activity is recognised – and justified – as a social and political act (p.152). From this view the participants in ‘critical educational science’ should be the teachers and learners themselves (p.158).

Elliot (drawing on Habermas) offers a typology of action research :

"Technical action research serves the interests of exercising greater control over human behaviour to produce the desired outcomes;
practical action research serves the interests of practical wisdom in discerning the right course of action in particular circumstances;
critical action research serves the interests of emancipating people from oppression."

Elliott, 2005: 365

These authors argue that research should be emancipatory, and that a critical stance is necessary, but not sufficient, to make AR emancipatory.

"…therapeutic critiques that promote critical self-reflection do not necessarily translate into empowering people to take action for the sake of an ideal. This requires further conditions to apply, such as having the ‘power motivation’ and capabilities (cognitive abilities and dispositions) necessary for exercising agency in a situation. Bernstein points out that the liberation of the mind ‘is not yet concrete freedom, and can arise in a world where nothing has substantially changed’ (pp. 216-217). Becoming critical is not enough to become empowered as a change agent."

Elliot, 2005, p.362

Sources cited:

• Carr, W., & Kemmis, S. (1986). Becoming Critical: education, knowledge and action research. Lewes, East Sussex: The Falmer Press.
• Elliott, J. (2005). Becoming critical: the failure to connect. Educational Action Research, 13(3), 359-374. doi: 10.1080/09650790500200297
• Hadfield, M. (2012). Becoming critical again: reconnecting critical social theory with the practice of action research. Educational Action Research, 20(4), 571-585. doi: 10.1080/09650792.2012.727647