Reading Action Research: Notes on Knowledge and Human Interests

Abstract

Action research is now part of the official discourse of the physical education profession. However, the phrase action research is not understood in the same way by all those who use it. This paper argues that action research can be considered as a text that is read differently by different individuals as a result of their different biographies. Importantly, different readings represent different positions with respect to valued forms of knowledge and the human interests they reflect and support. Three different examples of action research from the physical education literature are presented and analyzed from the perspective of knowledge and human interest, and a plea is made to recognize and explicate the assumptions implicit in our own interpretations of action research.