Editing Action research (section)

==Process==

Action research is an interactive inquiry process that balances problem-solving actions implemented in a collaborative context with data-driven collaborative analysis or research to understand underlying causes enabling future predictions about personal and organizational change.<ref>{{Cite book |editor1-last=Reason |editor1-first=Peter |editor2-last=Bradbury |editor2-first=Hilary | title=Handbook of action research: participative inquiry and practice |date=2001 |publisher=Sage |isbn=978-0761966456 |location=London |oclc=50303325}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Rowell |first1=Lonnie L. |last2=Polush |first2=Elena Yu |last3=Riel |first3=Margaret |last4=Bruewer |first4=Aaron |date=2015-02-03 |title=Action researchers' perspectives about the distinguishing characteristics of action research: a Delphi and learning circles mixed-methods study |journal=Educational Action Research |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=243–270 |doi=10.1080/09650792.2014.990987|s2cid=144046257 }}</ref><ref name="Margaret Riel mriel@pepperdine.edu">{{Cite web |url=https://www.ccarweb.org/ |title=Center for Collaborative Action Research |last=Margaret Riel |website=ccarweb.org |access-date=2022-11-17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Action research: improving schools and empowering educators |last=Mertler, Craig A. |isbn=9781452244426 |edition= 4th |location=Los Angeles |oclc=855491780 |date = 2013-09-10}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Just Research in Contentious Times: Widening the Methodological Imagination. |last=Fine |first=Michelle |publisher=Teacher College Press |year=2018 |isbn=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.actionresearchtutorials.org/action-research-journals |title=11: Action Research Journals  |website=Action Research Tutorials - CCAR |access-date=2019-05-17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.socialpublishersfoundation.org/ |title=Practitioner Research |website=Social Publishers Foundation |language=en |access-date=2019-05-17}}</ref><ref name="actionresearchtutorials.org">{{Cite web |url=https://www.actionresearchtutorials.org/2-resources |title=Resources {{!}} Understanding Action Research {{!}} Tutorials |website=ccar-tutorials |access-date=2019-05-17}}</ref>

After seven decades of action research development, many methods have evolved that adjust the balance to focus more on the actions taken or more on the research that results from the reflective understanding of the actions.
This tension exists between:

# those who are more driven either by the researcher's agenda or by participants;
# those who are motivated primarily by instrumental goal attainment or by the aim of personal, organizational or societal transformation; and
# 1st-, to 2nd-, to 3rd-person research, that is, my research on my own action, aimed primarily at personal change; our research on our group (family/team), aimed primarily at improving the group; and 'scholarly' research aimed primarily at theoretical generalization or large-scale change.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |title=Action Research: All You Need to Know |url=https://archive.org/details/allyouneedtoknow00mcni |url-access=limited |last1=McNiff |first1=J. |publisher=Sage |year=2005 |isbn=978-1473967472 |location=London |pages=[https://archive.org/details/allyouneedtoknow00mcni/page/n9 3]–5 |last2=Whitehead |first2=J.}}</ref>

Action research challenges traditional social science by moving beyond reflective knowledge created by outside experts sampling variables, to an active moment-to-moment theorizing, data collecting and inquiry occurring in the midst of emergent structure. "Knowledge is always gained through action and for action. From this starting point, to question the validity of social knowledge is to question, not how to develop a reflective science about action, but how to develop genuinely well-informed action – how to conduct an action science".<ref>{{cite book |title=Human Inquiry |last=Torbert |first=William R. |editor1-last=Reason |editor1-first=P. |editor2-last=Rowan | editor2-first=J. | publisher=John Wiley and Sons |date=1981 |pages=141–151 |chapter=Why Educational Research Has Been So Uneducational: The Case for a New Model of Social Science Based on Collaborative Inquiry |isbn=978-0471279365}}</ref> In this sense, engaging in action research is a form of problem-based investigation by practitioners into their practice, thus it is an [[empirical process]]. The goal is both to create and share knowledge in the social sciences.