Specific Instructions for Action Research Exchanges and Inquiry

First review: Introduction to Action Research

Then read: General Framework for Exchanges and Inquiry

Now complete a KAQF worksheet for each idea you come up with, either on your own computer or on this wiki. (To do this on your own computer, copy and paste the template page into your wordprocessor. To do this on the wiki, ask the instructor to create a personal copy of the template page or--once you are confident using wikis--create one yourself, e.g., 693PJT1 [for 1st page of person with initials PJT]. )

KAQF

K: What do we Know?

• How do you Know that? -- What's the evidence (e.g., from the scenario), assumptions, and reasoning?

A: Action: What could people do on the basis of this knowledge? (Specify which people, i.e., who would be in the constituency you would need to help build.)

• What knowledge claim(s) does this Action follow from?
• What problem that you see raised by the scenario does that Action relate to?

Q: Questions for Inquiry: What more do we need to know—in order to clarify what people could do, or to revise/refine the knowledge, or to enlist someone in your constituency.

F: How to Find this out?

• Will your method of research best enable you to Find this out?

You can start with a Knowledge claim that you identify in the scenario, or an Action you want to propose, or a Question you want to find the answer to, or means of Finding out information. However you start, work through the whole KAQF. That is, fill in the spaces on the worksheet/personal wikipage so as to spell out your thinking.

If you start with K, simply move through the A, Q, F steps as given below. If you do not start with K, you have to backfill. E.g., if you started with F--say, you want to conduct a survey of a group of people--then you should identify what Question that addresses. Then clarify if you are asking that Question in order to clarify what people could do (an Action), or to revise/refine some Knowledge claim, or to enlist someone in your constituency (another kind of Action). Or, if you start with a proposal for Action, state what knowledge claim(s) this Action follows from (probably a problem that you see raised by the scenario).

Use the probing questions indented under the main K, A, Q, F (above) to stimulate further thinking on your own KAQF or that of other students. (On the wiki, add your question indented under the relevant K, A, Q, or F.) If the thinking needs to be clarified or spelled out, go back and revise accordingly.

Using this framework to spell out your thinking and expose it to the scrutiny of yourself and others is intended to produce critical dialogue and reflection in the first quadrant of the Action Research cycle (i.e., where you move back and forward between evaluation of the current state of affairs and design of action proposals).

When you are comfortable with what you have on your worksheet/personal wikipage (perhaps after getting it reviewed by the instructor), create a Knowledge claim page on the wiki or rename your personal page with a name that conveys your Knowledge claim. In either case, add a link to your page on the index of pages related to the Action Research.

If you have an answer to a Question for Inquiry (posed by you or someone else) that is short, you may add it EITHER after the question OR on a new page as a new Knowledge claim (which allows others to respond to your claim). When you have more detailed findings on a topic, make a link to a new page on which you present a Summary or Substantive Statement OR to a file that you upload to the wiki. (Don't be intimidated by the label "Substantive Statement" -- this may start as notes or a draft, which only later gets revised into a well-organized and referenced information on the topic.)

(original page by - pjt )