Comprehension task: infed (Hella, Miriam)

1.      Outline the two distinct views of action research the author describes.

There is a British and US-American view of action research.

The British view is linked to education and sees action research as an improvement of teaching skills. It aims at self-reflection of the participants.

The US-American view focuses on social change due to information based research in order to unfold unjust practices and environmental danger. The outcome of this form of action research should provide ideas for change.

2.      Briefly list the steps in the spiral proposed by Lewin.

The first step is to line out an idea that the research action is based on. The second step is to get informed about the situation that the idea is confronted with. This step also includes planning of your further steps. The third step is to start your research by taking action towards the goals of the initial idea. Then as a fourth step you need to evaluate your action so far and reflect on the result. As a fifth step you then need to adjust your approach and see if there is something to improve. Finally, you start further actions and repeat the process.

3.      What are some of the criticisms action research had to face?

Action research had to face some criticism because it was not considered to be real research. The spiral proposed by Lewin is considered to have little focus on analysis.

4.      Why did it decline in favour in the 1960s?

Action research was associated with radical political activism. There were doubts that action research is no accurate research and does not improve research skills of its participants.  

     9.  Miriam and Hella would choose Action Research as a Living Practice by Carson and 

          Sumara because the book seems to be a guide to understanding and doing action research properly.

           As a second choice Creating Practical Knowledge Through Action Research by Quigley and

           Kuhne would appeal to us because of the same reason.

Homework #1

Books. Everywhere just BOOKS!

Books are an essential part of your studies. You need them for research or they might be required reading material for a course. But what if you have an entire list of books to read?

This is the case here at the Institute of American and British Studies at the University of Hamburg. Students are supposed to have read quite a long list of books at the end of their studies. But it is difficult to fit in another pile of books in your studies during the semester. And in the lecture-free time you are supposed to write your term papers. So we came up with an idea to make essential knowledge available to our fellow students. The concept is to create a wiki that contains information regarding the books on the reading list. A wiki will give us the possibility of distinguishing between British and American literature. Also we can add other columns like "Authors" or "Literature periods".

The general question accompanying us during our project is, how can we make students aware of this database and how will it effect their studies? The first task for our group will be to create that wiki with its basic structure. Furthermore we will have to define what information we regard essential. And we need a way to get a response from fellow students.

In addition to the books of the reading list, the wiki can also provide information on poems or songs that students are supposed to read during their studies at the University of Hamburg.

Of course, we will not be able to go work on all the literature that is on the list due to limited time. We will try to work on as much books/poems/etc as possible though. Maybe, in the end, we will hava a wiki that other students can also contribute information to. Thus, our wiki could be a proper source when it comes to research on the items of the reading list.

Edited by HH