Highlander Research and Education Center serves as a catalyst for grassroots organizing and movement building. This article focuses on an interview with education coordinator Susan Williams who has worked at Highlander for 26 years. We discuss how others can and do create powerful popular education experiences anywhere, whether they have a…

Critical approaches to HRD do not focus solely on improving organizational performance; instead, they address previously undiscussable issues such as power, politics, class, sexism, racism, and heterosexism. Since critical HRD often seeks to raise problems instead of solve them immediately, it is sometimes criticized for being elitist and detached…

Defines action research and discusses its application to training. (JOW)

Outlines the nature of the learning organization and describes how action technologies can be used to build learning organizations. Outlines the strategies and dilemmas of consultants who use this approach to build learning organizations. (Author)

Makes a case for using postmodern concepts in the reflection stage of action research. Offers ways for a dialog between action research and postmodernism: common critique of knowledge and power, the notion of discontinuity, narrative as a form of discourse, and Foucault's analysis of power. (SK)

Critiques the articles in this issue, discussing various methods of action research; intended and unintended outcomes; and the meanings of participation, collaboration, and involvement. (SK)

Addresses the issue of intention in action research, suggesting that researchers ask who will be the first-level beneficiaries and what will be the first level of change. Discusses ethical questions regarding consent and justification of research steps. (SK)

Describes the activities of Orlando Fals-Borda and Maria Cristina Salazar in promoting participatory action research and political activism in Colombia. (SK)

As National Vocational Qualifications are advocated for professional development, reflective practice takes on an increasingly narrow and technical focus. The focus and purposes of reflection must be made more explicit and the range and scope of reflection much wider if emancipatory discourse is to thrive. (SK)

Action research involves responding to practice problems through problem posing and solving. Its core processes are planning, acting, reflecting, and observing. Data collection methods include anecdotes, field notes, document analysis, logs, journals, portfolios, questionnaires, interviews, audio/video recordings, and tests of learner performance.…

Staff development funding under the National Literacy Act of 1991 provides real opportunities for using action research on a broad level to advance professionalism, implement policy, and enhance internal validity. Action research can be a key to professionalism and policy in the field. (Author/JOW)

Presents a call to action from the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education for collaborative action research to advance the field. Notes that the rationale for the effort includes the emergence of the societal trend of cultural creatives and heightened awareness of social issues post-September 11. (SK)

The ideological divide in adult education extends to the issues of knowledge production and the authority to conduct research. Action research is a collaborative method involving practitioners in knowledge production. It can demystify research and help bridge the basic-applied gap. (SK)

Two collaborative inquiry groups share their processes and findings, such as coresearchers' lived experience is equal in importance to formally collected data; knowledge created in the group belongs to the group; and coresearchers must be equal in contribution and commitment. (SK)

Six case studies illustrate action research in adult education: faculty development in a museum, participation in a church congregation, retention of literacy volunteers in a corrections center, learner participation in a homeless shelter, technology innovation in a university, and infection control in a hospital. (SK)