Action research: a wonderfully uncomfortable mode of creating knowledge

Abstract

Changed views on the nature and purpose of knowledge production provide the backdrop for the authors’ demonstration of the ways in which action research on the development of general skills transformed their values into a living theory. This paper recounts how action research was used to integrate general skills into a medical curriculum. It also presents evidence of the critical scrutiny to which the first author’s educational practice was subjected. The distinctive features of action research provide an analytical framework for arguing that an action researcher can produce useful knowledge and so certainly can have a “scientific message”.