Action Learning and Action Research

Reviews / Votes

This edited collection takes on the valuable but difficult task of identifying the non-negotiable or defining characteristics of action learning (AL) and action research (AR). The task is difficult because the 'action' approach values multiple perspectives and worldviews and encourages participants to own and create their knowledge. This results in a family of approaches as AL/AR evolves to serve practitioners in their learning process. As editors, Zuber-Skerritt and Wood [have invited a wide range of perspectives from AL/AR advocates/scholars who have contributed to the evolution of the now many genres. They close with embracing their goal of deepening understanding AL/AR as philosophy, methodology, theory of learning, and process for community engagement. This book does an excellent job of challenging action researchers to critically think through their traditions in contrast to other approaches. The chapters provide a solid foundation for AL and AR approaches to create understandings and knowledge based on values and worldviews that uphold inclusion and will further develop the quality of social sciences and our democratic world. -- Margaret Riel, PhD, Director, Center for Collaborative Action Research, Pepperdine University, Los Angeles, CA, USA The author list for this edited book reads like a 'who's who' in action learning (AL) and action research (AR). These authors are leaders in the field internationally, bringing years of research and theoretical and professional experience to their writing. Many of these authors influenced my own action research PhD in coaching leadership over two decades ago and I wish such a text had been available then. It offers extensive perspectives on the subject, with strong validation of research methodologies. AR has been generally misunderstood in universities and not highly regarded as a research paradigm. Supervision of action research postgraduate studies can be? problematic, and for the AL/AR scholar/researcher may feel murky and difficult to negotiate. But this complexity typically matches the wicked problems, often those of justice, social relationships and environmental sustainability, that ALAR seeks to address. In this way, the paradigm is true to its early beginnings in Kurt Lewin's work - in pursuit of social justice.


This is a text for leaders of organizations, schools and community groups, who want to engage the people who are affected by problems in the creation of the solutions. It offers readers inclusivity of perspectives and will be a beneficial read for beginning action researchers and their supervisors, more experienced action researchers wanting further critical perspectives and challenge, and for leaders in the field wanting to engage in participatory AL/AR. -- Jan Robertson, PhD, Adjunct Professor Griffith University, Academic Leadership Consultant and Author of Coaching Leadership: Building educational leadership capacity through partnership, New Zealand I have learned that whenever Ortrun Zuber-Skerritt publishes something, it is worth paying attention. Zuber-Skerritt and Lesley Wood have put together an edited collection that is unusual in being integrated around a principled overview of the fields of action research (AR) and action learning (AL). The overview distinguishes usefully between action learning and action research, and makes a case for their synergies and differences in ways that enhanced my understandings greatly. This is accomplished by the editors' having recruited the principal exponents of the genres that are the topics of each chapter and asked them to reflect synthetically on their particular areas of work. The result is both a panoramic view of AL and AR and a deep dive into many of the varieties of practice. The writing is clear, pedagogically adept, and analytically cogent. The editors and the contributors deserve great credit for having put together such a useful and thoughtful overview of these fields. -- Davydd Greenwood, PhD, Goldwin Smith Professor of Anthropology, Cornell University, USA This book is of great merit to its editors, Ortrun Zuber-Skerritt, the Australian Doyenne of AL and AR, and her colleague Lesley Wood, having collected contributions from outstanding scholars and experienced practitioners in the field of AL & AR from all over the world. This is not just a collection of articles. Presented within a well substantiated framework, the chapters reveal the evolution of this participatory, transformational paradigm, unfolding the great utility, diversity and richness of the various genres of AL and AR, and thus offering a very useful, comprehensive guide. Readers will benefit greatly from the didactic of every chapter - not only illustrating the what, why, and how of each genre, but also offering topics for further discussion and reflection, and tips for further reading. This rich collection on AL and AR can be very useful for not only emerging scholars and other newcomer practitioners but also for more experienced scholars, looking for their own way of adapting this approach creatively and constructively - at this time when AL and AR have such methodological relevance for resolving small and large scale difficulties in our complex world. -- Stephan Laske, PhD, Emeritus Professor, University of Innsbruck, Austria This book brings together a collection of interesting works from established scholars to bring to light various genres and approaches in the fields of action learning and action research. From the conceptual discussions and practical exemplars, readers of this book who are new to action learning and action research will gain a clearer understanding of the what, how and why of action learning and action research. Readers with greater familiarity and experience in the field will gain a deeper appreciation of the field's traditions as well as new curiosity - or wondering into the future - about how action learning and action research can be relevant and integrated to new genres and approaches. This book is also a timely reminder of how the participatory paradigm can be a forceful counter response to the growing neoliberalism of the twenty-first century. -- Hairon Salleh, PhD, Associate Professor, Policy and Leadership Studies, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. I welcome the appearance of this new survey of action learning and action research, compiled by leading scholars from Australia, USA, UK, Ireland, South Africa and Austria. This book promises some interesting excursions into intriguing aspects of action learning and action research practice in a difficult field of work, and I look forward to reading it. -- Professor Mike Pedler, Emeritus Professor of Action Learning at Henley Business School, University of Reading, UK Contributed by education, learning, and other researchers from North America, Australia, Europe, and South Africa, the 14 chapters in this volume outline action learning and action research genres and approaches meant to improve personal, professional, team, organization, and community development, based on a participatory paradigm of working together for the common good. They explain lifelong action learning, action learning and mindfulness, the integration of action learning with action research, action research for self-study and living-educational-theories, educational action research, systemic action research, action science, appreciative inquiry, critical participatory action research, participatory action learning and action research, with information on what each genre is, its purposes and contexts, and processes for conducting research. -- Annotation (c)2019 * (protoview.com) *