Action Research Framework

What is Action Research ?

Action research is not a single approach but rather represents a tension between a number of forces that lead to personal, professional, and social change. Action research is a process of deep inquiry into one’s practices in service of moving towards an envisioned future, aligned with values. It can be seen as a systematic, reflective study of one’s actions, and the effects of these actions, in a workplace or organizational context. As such, it involves a deep inquiry into one’s professional practice. However, it is also a collaborative process as it is done WITH people in a social context, and understanding the change means probing multiple understanding of complex social systems. And finally, as research, it implies a commitment to data sharing.

From the center for collaborative action research

• Phase1: Community engagement – Form partnerships, collaborations, and a consortium of stakeholders and advisors to give inputs & feedback, support implementation, and analysis.
• Phase 2: Co-design & planning – Series of co-labs with partners to design & plan the program, curriculum, and preparation of resources material.
• Phase 3: Implementation & documentation – Carry out the main activities of the program as per the agreed design and document the journey.
• Phase 4: Learnings & analysis – Outputs, harvest learnings and engage in analysis with academic partners and the consortium. Revise meta question for next cycle.
• Phase 5: Outcome dissemination – Share the learnings and analysis with the world.
• Repeat from phase 1- Based on the learnings and analysis, reform the consortium and redesign the program to include new insights.

These cycles are repeated a few times and each time, the analysis focuses on predetermined meta-questions that feed into the design phase of the next cycle.

Research and analysis are done in collaboration with academic partners. This way, the projects have outcomes by themselves as well as meta outcomes in the form of analysis and learnings that can be beneficial to other projects, inclusion in climate policy frameworks, and contribute to the growing body of knowledge in multi-species/ ecocentric frameworks for climate adaptation and regenerative living.

In the language of forestry and forest ecology, the “understory” is the name given to the life that exists between the forest floor and the tree canopy: the fungi, mosses, lichens, bushes, and saplings that thrive and compete in this mid-zone. Metaphorically, though, the “understory” is also the sum of the entangled, ever-growing narratives, histories, ideas, and words that interweave to give a wood or forest its diverse life in culture.

-Robert Macfarlane