A)+Historical+Philosophical+Theoretical

= Historical/Philosophical/Theoretical Background =

History:
In the 1940’s Kurt Lewin’s work with social reform is credited with originating Action Research. Although Lewin’s work is widely known and cited as the beginning of Action Research, John Dewey’s work in education during the 1920’s resembles Action Research. Dewey’s work was experimental and progressive in that he tried to update and modify the education system to one that valued the input of those involved in the teaching process (Noffke, p. 17-18).

Kurt Lewin is credited with the origination of Action Research due to the work he was involved in during the 1940’s and 1950’s. During this time Lewin, a Jewish psychologist refugee from Germany, was working with community groups in the United States trying to resolve social problems such a prejudice (Noffke and Somekh, p. 89).

It is mainly when problems arise, or life/world events dictate the need for change that people contemplate or search out changes that will improve their lives. The beginning of Action Research occurred at a time of turmoil in the world. World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II happened in such short succession the need for change became more apparent.

As Kurt Lewin is quoted as saying:

//“It is less than ten years ago that, defying hosts of prejudices, the attempt was made to proceed from descriptive studies of social relations and attitudes to what may be called “action research” on groups. It is not merely the nearness to problems of the practice which lies behind this particular interest in changes, but the fact that the stuff of experimentally created changes gives deeper insight into the dynamics of group life… Only experiments in changes can, finally, lay open the deeper layers of group dynamics. // //Such action research started as a mere trickle with studying children’s clubs…But the trickle has become a creek and will become a river. We are moving toward a full-fledged experimental science of group dynamics which will include the problems of leadership and leadership training, ideology and culture, group morale and group production, discipline and group organization, in short, all phases of group life.” //

Philosophy:
As Lewin saw it, “The actual way in which an attitude change effected by one group on another could still be seen as ‘by the people, for the people’” (Noffke, p.12). This democratic process is a necessary base on which Action Research stems.

As Action Research is an attempt to improve a situation, an idea, a way of doing etc., it needs the participation of those involved. “This more holistic approach…involving the whole of ourselves, seems to enable human flourishing as both the end and means of [Action Research]” By including those vested in the topic, this holistic approach greatly increases the likelihood of participation in the changes or the suggestion which the research may identify. Titchen and Manley mention “Habermas’s (1972) philosophical idea of a critical social science that uses the Marxist method of critique to create understanding of historical, political, social and cultural barriers and oppressions.” (Titchen & Manly, p. 338).

Timeline:

 * 1920 ’s John Dewey’s work bringing the student into the “present” through teachers working as a unit with the students, and not the traditional method which had the teacher as “all knowing” and the student as “all learning”
 * 1930 **s** – 1940s: Kurt Lewin comes to America from Germany and works on social problems – prejudice, discrimination, working conditions and coined the term “Action Research” died in 1947. Trist, Lewin’s student, developed Travistock ‘Institute of Human Relations’, in London to treat mental patients during WWII. MIT’s Research Center for Group Dynamics began with attention to the effects of groups on the behavior of individual (Pasmore, 2005: 38-40)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">1946 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">: Action Research Projects aimed at getting teachers to become researchers -under leadership of Stephen Covey at Columbia University. Postwar movement: Reconstructionist Curriculum Development Activities produced a general strategy for designing curricular through participatory research (McKernan 1991: 10)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">1950 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**s**: Eric Trist works on practical problems in the workplace; Lewin’s three step processes of plan, act, observe, expanded to a 5 stage cumbersome repetitive process of planning, acting, observing, responding through planning, acting, observing responding, et cetera. (Pasmore 2005: 45)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">1953-1957 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">: fell into criticism and disuse in the 1950’s after being judged as not ‘real’ research, too vague and condemned as methodologically poor, time consuming, lacking follow up investigation and unscientific according to the philosophy of social science of the day. No perceived congruence between theories and practices (Master, 2000)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">1960 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">s: re-emerged in form of ‘group therapy’ (MIT), educational learning “new ways to teach moral issues” discovery learning and industrial applications (Pasmore, 2005: 39)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">1970s – 1980s <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">: Gained favor in UK, Austria, Australia, and Norway, then returned to America in 1980s especially in educational action research (McKernan, 1991: 11)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">1990 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">s: Participatory Action Research in emancipatory work based on Paulo Friere. Participation was democratizing education, work places and expanding to industry. This approach is primarily 3rd-person in the scope of its intended societal transformations (Reason & McArdle, 2006: 1)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">2001 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">: At turning point in the development of Action Research: Reason & Bradbury published the “Handbook of Action Research” (Dick, 2004: 426)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">2004 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">: The Developmental Action Inquiry approach of Torbert & Associates; 1st-person self-study with face-to-face 2nd-person self-study by teams and with 3rd-person institution-wide self-study (Wikipedia 2006).