Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Action Research
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Williams, V.
Right arrow Articles by Hoadley, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

‘Take your partners’

Reflections on a partnership project in learning disability research

Val Williams

University of Bristol

Paul St Quintin

Somerset Social Services

Sally Hoadley

Somerset Connexions Service

This article presents an example of action research, namely a study about emotional distress in young people with learning disabilities. The study brought together a university research centre with an array of policy makers, managers and practitioners, as well as young people with learning disabilities and family members. The researcher’s role in such work has to be flexible, and the article explores the boundaries between practice and research. Through vignettes of key decision points in the project, this article considers some of the tensions inherent in partnership action research, and how they can be resolved. The important factors for success in this project were the initial and ongoing involvement of a senior manager in social services, and the confidence and flexibility of all service providers and policy makers in the area concerned. Engaging simultaneously with end users and practitioners in a research project could lead to ethical dilemmas, but this article explores how multiple and shifting roles can be beneficial in research. By keeping all the partners engaged in the research study, the work can become embedded in practice, and can lead to change.

Key Words: action research • emotional support • partnership • researcher roles • user involvement

Action Research, Vol. 4, No. 3, 295-314 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1476750306066803
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Action ResearchHome page
D. Arieli, V. J. Friedman, and K. Agbaria
The paradox of participation in action research
Action Research, September 1, 2009; 7(3): 263 - 290.
[Abstract] [PDF]