Although action research has been widely recognized as an appropriate methodology for promoting the democratization of knowledge, it is not always conducted from an emancipatory and transformative paradigm. Using AR in a technical way, renders it no more than a researcher-driven, problem-solving heuristic that perpetuates the intellectual…

The article's authors continually ask and attempt to answer questions, such as, 'How do I improve what I am doing?' and 'How do we improve what we are doing?' by researching their practice and making public what knowledge they create along the way. Here they describe Living Theory research and explain why this has enabled them to improve their…

What I want to share in this contribution to education inquiry are some insights from my educational research programme between 1973-2010 about the kind of educational theories that can explain the educational influence of an individual in their own learning, in the learning of others, and in the learning of the social formations in which we live…

A new paradigm of educational research is presented that is grounded in the living educational theories that educational action researchers produce for their own professional learning. In this new paradigm there is no one theoretical framework. Each individual action researcher is creating his or her own living theory in the explanations for their…

Responds to Jean Rudduck's argument that teachers should research their own practice. Maintains the teaching profession needs an autonomous body to accredit teacher education and to regulate curriculum content and assessment procedures. Encourages development of an action research approach to professional development and upgrading quality of…

A new form of knowledge proposed for a teacher education curriculum is dialogical and grounded in an educational researcher's experience of existing as a living contradiction within the politics of truth of a university. It includes a systematic form of action-reflection cycle and depends for its generalizability on teacher researchers producing…

This paper argues that school and university teachers could become part of a unified profession of educators through the creative and critical contributions of a new discipline of educational inquiry to the professional knowledge base for teaching. The first section consists of graduate-level dissertations and theses of teacher researchers who…

This conference presentation describes the characteristics of a living educational theory, explores its implications for self-study methodology, and offers a self-study from an educative relationship with a teacher educator. The theory has its basis in the following ideas: educators exist as living contradictions when their values are negated in…

There are many different approaches to educational research. They include the efforts of those who hope to make contributions to educational knowledge and theory through researching their own educational practices as teachers and researchers. In communicating an educational epistemology of practice, it is intended that the document show a…