Action research in physical education : cycles, not circles!

In this chapter, Tony will cover some of the historical background and original intentions of action research, to ground it as a democratic form of social practice. This is important because sometimes this aspect of action research is lost and action research as a way of bringing about change functions at only a technical level. In other words, change has no social meaning; instead functional change is about how practice (e.g., instruction, curriculum implementation, sports coaching) is ‘done’. This was not, however, a limitation in the original idea of action research. The historical overview that follows includes literature from the field of physical education (PE), although there is relatively little available. Tony will continue by describing some of the common techniques and methods used in action research and that might be employed in studies within, for example, physical education, sport or even personal training. In the second half of the chapter, Kiat describes how he undertook a comprehensive doctoral study in Singapore, using an action research approach as one of his methods. It was a detailed study undertaken initially in an unsympathetic context. Kiat provides an extensive explanation of what is required to enter a research context, gain trust from the participants, and then conduct a study that entails engaging the participants in a process of scrutinizing their own practice in order to find ways to improve it. By providing real case material in addition to the historical and the methodological discussions, we believe we are able to demonstrate that action research is far from ‘lightweight’ research and, secondly, not only provide detail about the procedures one might use in action research, but also describe some of the challenges it presents.