We analyse and self-reflect on an action research project conducted in a financial organisation twelve years ago. The research question was: What are the challenges of initiating an action research project in a financial organisation with top-down control that uses the Balanced Scorecard? The data came from action learning seminars with line…

Background: This article focuses on the complementarity between formative interventions research conducted within the framework of cultural historical activity theory, action research and learning, as well as how this complementarity influences the researcher's role. Purpose: The study suggests how action research, learning and formative…

Cooperative learning (CL) is a pedagogical model that is widely recognised to enhance students' academic and social learning. However, teachers experience difficulties implementing the method, which leads to CL being underutilised in schools. This paper presents experiences from an exploratory research and development project in which teachers…

Purpose: This paper aims to demonstrate how the Nordic model, featuring highly regulated trade union-employer collaboration, has enabled the building of learning organizations through a co-generative learning model involving both practitioners and action researchers. Design/methodology/approach: A literature search on the Nordic sociotechnical…

This article focuses on the double role of the academic action researcher working as facilitator and researcher in democratic professional development projects. The inquiry is based on three partnership projects: "research circles" in Sweden, "dialogue conferences" in Norway and "tailored professional development" in…

This paper presents an action research project that aimed to increase opportunities for multilingual literacy engagement and identity investment for newly-arrived immigrant students in Norway. A language teacher and a researcher jointly developed a cross-curricular, multilingual module focusing on identity texts written in three languages:…

Collaboration between participants with different roles, but equal status, is the aim in action research. In this project we experienced problems establishing equality between the participants. The research question discussed in this paper is: "How did the researcher experience that the use of narratives affected the level of equality between…

This article focuses on the challenges and opportunities a researcher may encounter in practice, and presents four narratives that take the reader into situations which may arise when the researcher steps into the practice field. Episodes that challenge the researcher both cognitively and emotionally are depicted in the narratives. The authors…

This article focuses on the theoretical frame of action research and the teacher as researcher, working through a Norwegian Research Council-funded project in a school that explored learning strategies for pupils' subject and social development. Action research is here called research and development (R&D) work as the term envisages that…

Action research in schools implies that the researchers and the teachers should collaborate on solving problems and improving practice. One underlying premise when choosing, such an approach, is that the participants are interested in, and willing to participate in such a process. In this article, the authors explore how words and utterances…

This article reveals how educational policies and policy contexts in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Australia establish the circumstances which enable and constrain individual and collective teacher professional development as praxis. We provide insights into existing partnerships between universities and schools, and, municipalities and the state as…