This research workshop revolves around the use of action research in educational research. Action research is a research tradition or family that takes many methodological forms and is inspired by different philosophies of science, and thus there are many different schools of action research.  Common to all of these schools is an understanding of action research as a participatory, democratic process concerned with developing practical knowing in the pursuit of worthwhile human purposes, grounded in a participatory worldview (Reason and Bradbury, 2001)

This workshop is primarily representing two schools within the action research – one is Cooperative Formative Action Research (University of Malaga, Spain) and the other is Critical Utopian Action Research (University College UCC, Denmark).

Cooperative Formative Action Research is a kind of Participatory Action Research (PAR) characterized by its focus on collaboration between researchers and local communities and citizens. By this collaboration knowledge is produced that both contributes to the scientific field and to the development of the stakeholder community. The knowledge produced is thus a part of a common agenda between researchers and stakeholders towards social change.

The Critical Utopian Action Research is a school primarily prevalent within the Scandinavian action research community. The tradition is characterized by its practical interpretation, using critical theory as a background for connecting critique, utopian thinking and everyday knowledge to create development and critical analyses in cooperation between researchers and participants.

Both of the schools that are presented in the workshop are characterized by a strong notion of participation by and with community stakeholders and members.  It is a concept of participation that has as its primary goal to both involve participants in knowledge production (a social knowledge that is more significant and robust) and to emphazise commitment to action.

The participatory research approach also holds a notion of emancipation and democracy, both of the knowledge creation and the development within the field, and is generally concerned with framing an understanding of research as democratic and open. It is for this reason that both approaches are valid for producing a kind of knowledge that aims to be critical, reflexive, collective, participatory and emancipatory.

As a philosophy of science and as a method, action research has a special way of perceiving not only the role of the researcher, but also the critical reflective practice and the building of theoretical frameworks. It is not just a shared reflection on practice among practitioners and research practitioners, but rather it should fosterthe need for continuous theoretical development.

In the workshop we will both present the general theoretical framework of action research and give examples of projects using an action research approach, including providing small insights into the methods in these projects as an inspiration for the participants in the workshop. The researchers presenting are primarily employed within the field of school development and inclusion as part of developing democratic, more just and cultured environments at schools. Developing schools in an inclusive thinking is for both research groups a challenge which is undertaken by working closely with teachers and employees at the participating schools. The workshop presents two different projects within the field of inclusion and school development, using action research in different ways.

Brydon-Miller et al. (2003): Why actions research? Action research, vol 1(1), p9-28, Sage Publications Carr, W., & Kemmis, S. (1986): Becoming critical: Education, knowledge, and action research. London: Falmer. Elliott, J. (1995). Action research for educational change. Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press. Gibbons, Michael, Camille Limoges, Helga Nowotny, Simon Schwartzman, Peter Scott, Martin Trow (1994): The New Production of Knowledge: The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies. London. Sage Horton, Myles & P. Freire (1991): We make the road by walking. Conversations on education and social change: Temple University Kemmis, S. & McTaggart, R. (1988). Cómo planificar la investigación-acción. Barcelona: Laertes. Marshall, J. (2001). Self-reflective inquiry practices. In P. Reason & H. Bradbury (Eds.),Handbook of action research (pp. 433–439). London: SAGE. Murray, H. & Trist, E. (1990/93): Social engagement of social science. Vol. I og II. Philadelphia: The university of Pennsylvania Press Park, P., M. Brydon-Miller, B. Hall & T. Jackson (Eds.) (1993), Voices of change: Participatory research in the United States and Canada. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey. Reason, P., & Bradbury, H. (eds.) (2001): Handbook of action research. London: SAGE. Svensson, L., & Aagard Nielsen, K. (2006). A framework for the book. In K. Aagaard Nielsen & L. Svensson (Eds.), Action research and interactive research (pp. 13–45). Maastricht: Shaker Publishing. Wenger, E. (2006). Communities of practice, a brief introduction. Retrieved 5 April 2010, from hhtp://www.ewenger.com/theory/communities_of_practice_intro.htm.