The field of action research has been waiting for Judi\u2019s crystallization of first person inquiry practices. Her\u00a0work of decades now shows in\u00a0First Person Action Research<\/i> (Marshall, 2016, Sage Publications), which offers a useful\u00a0and timely read.<\/p>\n
First person action research – inquiry about our subjectivity, our biases, our partialities and motivations – helps inform better action, better research and more mindful leadership. Judi\u2019s book helps to situate inquiry and give the fuller, more honest version\u00a0of\u00a0our work as social scientists and change agents.\u00a0Judi\u00a0names\u00a0this\u00a0integrative mode of inquiry\u00a0a linking\u00a0of \u201couter and inner arcs of attention.\u201d Once you start doing it, it\u00a0will enrich\u00a0everyday day, a “living life as inquiry.”<\/p>\n
First person inquiry is not for its own sake! Objective studies are increasingly questioned for their partiality. Rigorous first person action research helps complement\u00a0scientific insights by “troubling” and clarifying\u00a0them. A simple example – in an otherwise ordinary board meeting to select a new CEO how come I keep noticing that the men repeatedly overlook the lone female candidate? \u00a0Is this candidate just forgettable? Is it related to what studies tell us is a pattern among men to select men to replace men in leadership positions? Do I over-notice all this because of my own subject position as a woman? How do I raise this thorny topic in a fruitful rather than blaming way?<\/p>\n
When we take first person action research seriously, we could say that any work passed off as “objective” lacks rigor unless and until we also account for\u00a0the reflexivity, or first person insights, that undergird it. Ironically, and counter to conventional notions, the admission of first person inquiry into our work as social scientists and change agents does not reveal only subjectivity (which is naturally always present), but brings more reflection, more reflexivity to (partially)\u00a0objective\u00a0findings.<\/p>\n
Judi\u00a0offers examples of useful and occasionally\u00a0artistic first person inquiry practices, helpfully brought alive with her own stories of living everyday inquiry. Action researchers, who are encouraged to hold high aspirations for positive impact with stakeholders, will find a guide to staying in touch with their aspiration, and support for keeping it real.<\/p>\n