Elements Contributing to a Theory and a Methodology of Action-Research in Education

Abstract

By endeavouring to go beyond the opposition between two modes of apprehension, one of an objectivist nature and the other of a phenomenological nature, there emerges the broad outline of an approach peculiar to action-research, which is characterised essentially by taking into account a dialectic expressed through systems of "loops" between subject and object, theory and practice, etc. Around these concepts of complexity and proximity/distance are subsequently presented some aspects of the changes produced by such an approach (the position of the researcher, the relations between theory and practice, the concept of change).

These theoretical considerations are illustrated from some aspects of an actionresearch project now in progress (the ARPEGE action-research project on home-school co-operation in education [1] at pre-school and elementary level).

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