Collaborative curriculum development projects use a range of approaches; one of these is action research (AR). The AR model typically works through cycles of action and reflection but always begins with a first stage traditionally known as reconnaissance.  The reconnaissance stage is intended to allow participants to jointly probe, problematize and explore the object of the research in order to identity their own preconceptions, find additional information, generate ideas for inquiry, and try out possible methods. It has been argued that piloting research is a form of reconnaissance, but in general, the literatures geared to AR in schools focus on practitioners generating problems and issues and puzzles that are located in their work or derived from a strategic policy imperative.

Curriculum is also sometimes developed through AR, but this is less common (but see for example Young People's Geographies). In these curriculum AR projects the reconnaissance stage relies on practitioners exploring problems and possibilities, often in conversation with their students, as a way to focus a project for development.  This paper reports on the reconnaissance stage of a collaborative curriculum project in which there was no problematisation per se, but which was instead deliberately open-ended and creative.

Our project aims to develop new ways for primary and secondary school students to learn about water - its quality, usage and management in the past, present and future.Water is likely to be a significant issue in Europe in the future, but to date there is little learning activity focused on it within the UK.  Our project is primarily funded by the Papplewick Pumping Station Trust, a Victorian heritage water facility which provided fresh water to the city of Nottingham from the 1880s onwards. A modern water pumping station nearby still provides 30% of the city’s water supply. The Trust’s mission is in part educational and focuses on ‘water literacies’, that is, on helping children and young people to both know more about, and behave ethically in relation to, water.

The core action research team consists of: three secondary schools (six teachers) and two primary schools (five teachers); the Manager of the Papplewick Pumping Station; six academics (a History and Geography teacher educator,  an action researcher with a Science background and a creative pedagogies researcher, a senior academic specialising in water management and use and their PhD researcher); and three artists (writer, visual and movement artist, and film-maker) and a creative agent (also a theatre designer) responsible for being the ‘glue’ of the project. The teachers were invited to be part of the project on the basis of their experience with previous curriculum development activities in geography, history and creative pedagogy.

Adleman, C. (1993). Kurt Lewin and the Origins of Action Research. Educational Action Research, 1(1), 7-24. Elliott, J. (1991). Action Research for Educational Change. Buckingham: Open University Press. Kemmis, S., & McTaggart, R. (1982). The Action Research Planner. Geelong, Victoria: Deakin University Press. Lewin, K. (1946). Action Research and Minority Problems. Journal of Social Issues, 2(4), 34-46. Lewin, K. (1947). Frontiers in group Dynamics: II. Channels of Group Life; Social Planning and action research. Human Relations, 1(2), 143-153. Youthful Geographies http://www.youngpeoplesgeographies.co.uk/resources-ideas/the-what-if-project