This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Ragland, B. B. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Positioning the practitioner-researcher

Five ways of looking at practice

University of Tennessee, USA

When I considered research in my practice as a supervisor of teachers working inside a juvenile correctional facility, I sought ways to explore aspects of my personal experience. Heeding Reason's (1994) call for ‘critical subjectivity’ in attending to the ground on which one stands, I suggest that it is possible, by craning my neck or standing on tiptoe, as it were, to change positions, if not to leave the ground entirely. In this article I seek to capture a moment in the process of action research – a moment that occurs before engaging with others in collaborative sense-making in our joint practice. I explore my experience in this moment through five different perspectives: subjective embodiment in the practice; reflection on the practice; frames of reference; relevant and emergent theories; and personal stakes in the matter. While this effort falls within the realm of firstperson inquiry as discussed by Reason and Marshall (2001), Torbert (2000), and Reason and Torbert (2001), it also has elements of second-person inquiry, as it is oriented toward the practice I share with others.

Key Words: first-person action research • knowing • perspectives • practical mastery • practical theory

Action Research, Vol. 4, No. 2, 165-182 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1476750306063990


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. M. Peters and A. Gray Teaching and learning in a model-based action research course Action Research, September 1, 2007; 5(3): 319 - 331. [Abstract] [PDF]