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Shining light on the dark side of action research: Power, relationality and transformation

We know that ART has a ‘dark side’.  ARJ Associate Editors Koen Bartels and Victor Friedman have written an editorial for the latest issue of ARJ about precisely that! 

Koen and Victor explain: “ART is a complex and demanding process. It demands relational, conceptual and experimental skills not usually taught together in conventional educational programs. Many challenges are likely to emerge and there are no guarantees that it will achieve the desired impact. Transformative aspirations and change processes inevitably come with ambiguities, mistakes, frustrations, tensions, conflicts and disappointments. All action researchers struggle with feelings of failure and doubt about the value and impact of their work.”

See a snippet from their conversation in the video below.

Read the full editorial. It’s outside the paywall. The editorial also introduces a themed issue to further highlight different aspects of this topic. You will see more of the authors’ papers in upcoming newsletters.  

Link to the editorial: https://doi.org/10.1177/14767503221098033

Link to the current issue: https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/arja/current

 

Photo credit: Jacob Dyer, Unsplash