The Action Research Dissertation

“Watkins, Nicolaides, and Gilbertson offer a refreshing and accessible take on the history, theory, and practice of action research. They excel at the difficult balancing act that many action researchers experience – successfully weaving reflection, action, and theory to provide a praxis-informed account. This is not only grounded in the authors’ years of experience in organization action research, but in the evidence they have systematically reflected on and analyzed from their EdD program. This book The Action Research Dissertation: Learning from Leading Change provides the necessary building blocks for any doctoral student or emerging action researcher interested in making a transformative change in their organization.”

Giovanni Dazzo, co-author of "Critical Participatory Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Introduction and Guide." Assistant Professor, Mary Frances Early College of Education, University of Georgia

“Based on a decade of innovative development and reflective refinement, Watkins, Gilbertson, and Nicolaides provide an essential guide to a much-needed contemporary action research dissertation process that ambitiously engages doctoral students in leading change while conducting relevant research. The work The Action Research Dissertation: Learning from Leading Change as presented is grounded in principles of purpose, mutuality, and rigorous integrity but is also highly practical and problem-based. It offers rich examples to navigate the challenges of using such an approach. Through this process, students document impactful results of learning and change at the individual, group, and system levels. Foremost is the learning we hope for through doctoral education—that of scholar-leaders propelled beyond their study to create change and knowledge in many contexts.”

Lorilee R. Sandmann, Professor Emerita, University of Georgia

“Karen Watkins, Aliki Nicolaides and Erica Gilbertson provide guidance for conducting Action Research that is both academically based and very readable in terms of practice. The book The Action Research Dissertation: Learning from Leading Change is relevant for doctoral students (particularly students in professional practice doctoral programs) and practitioners in organizations in need of addressing real world problems. It builds on both the classic literature on action research and learning integrated into the contemporary literature relevant to the process. This book begins with a thorough description of the foundations of action research and then presents the specific components of initiating and conducting the process. Their focus is on using theory effectively. In doing so it presents specific practices for each step in the process in a way that offers very specific ways of addressing the complexity of conducting action research in today’s world of rapid change that is occurring while the research is being conducted. This includes practices through which participants in the research assess the type of challenges they are studying and learning from each other’s perspectives. The authors draw on both individual, team and organizational learning theory and other academic frameworks integrating them into leading and participating in the research process. They take the reader through the process step by step in each chapter, beginning with choosing and recruiting participants for the action learning team, bringing the team together, managing the team through critical and challenging aspects of the process, addressing ethical and validity issues and how to effectively present their findings from the research. Examples used throughout the book are from a range of institutional settings, business, education, health care and others. This book brings action research into the current time of the 21st century for learning through inquiry in times of continuous change. It is about leading through effective inquiry.”

Lyle Yorks, Professor Emeritus, Adult Learning & Leadership Program, Teachers College, Columbia University

“Watkins, Gilbertson, and Nicolaides give us a practical and resource-rich approach suited to action researchers entering the field.”

Hilary Bradbury, Ph.D., editor in chief, Action Research journal and curator, Foundation AR+

Part 1—Laying the Foundation

1: Beginning Your Action Research Journey

2: The Nature of Action Research for Changing Systems

3: The Scholar-Leader—Leading Change in Action Research

Part 2—Scaffolding the Study

4: Developing the Theoretical Framework

5: Intervention in Action Research

6: Evidencing the Action Research Problem

7: Designing Action Research Studies

8: Facilitating the Action Research Team

Part 3—Securing the Study

9: Telling the Action Research Story

10: Ethical Standards and Dilemmas in Action Research

11: Common Challenges in Action Research

12: Concluding our Action Research Journey

Appendix A - The University of Georgia Action Research Doctorate

Appendix B - Sample Action Research Dissertation Abstracts

About the Authors

Index

Karen E. Watkins

Dr. Karen E. Watkins is Professor of Learning, Leadership and Organizational Development in the College of Education at The University of Georgia. She holds a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. from the University of Wisconsin. Karen’s scholarly interests include organizational learning assessment, informal and incidental learning, action learning, action research, and action science. Watkins & Marsick developed and validated the Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (1997) used in over 100 published studies. Watkins is the author or co-author of numerous articles and chapters, and nine books. With Victoria Marsick, she recently completed work on a forthcoming book entitled Rethinking Workplace Learning and Development. Named Scholar of the Year by the Academy of Human Resource Development in 1999, she was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Academy of Human Resource Development Scholar Hall of Fame in 2014. She consults with many organizations including work with OECD on schools as learning organizations and with the World Health Organization on evaluating learning and development among immunization staff. She was one of the founding presidents of the Academy of Human Resource Development and is currently on the Board of Trustees of the Geneva Learning Foundation in Switzerland.

Erica Gilbertson

Dr. Erica Gilbertson is the Director of Organizational Impact for the Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement. She holds an EdD from The University of Georgia (UGA) where she recently conducted an action research study dissertation in the Learning, Leadership and Organization Development program. She also holds an M.A. in Educational Studies from the University of Michigan. From 2012-2021 Erica served as a public service faculty member in UGA’s Office of School Engagement where she led school-university partnership programs. Prior to UGA, she directed both federal and foundation education grants that supported K–12 school improvement and redesign initiatives, worked as the communications manager at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education, and taught high school English. Erica has co-authored eight published scholarly articles/book chapters and given more than 20 presentations at regional/national academic conferences. Her scholarly interests include action research, school leadership, new teacher support, social network theory, professional development schools, and boundary-spanning leadership.

Aliki Nicolaides

Aliki Nicolaides Ed.D, is Professor of Adult Learning and Leadership at the University of Georgia in the program of Learning, Leadership & Organization Development. Her research centers on exploring the intra-active dynamics of learning that generate personal and societal transformation. She accomplishes this by focusing her research on the role that learning plays in activating the vital potential that connects self and society. Her desire for creating tools and scaffolds that grow individual and collective capacity for both inquiry and action is central to her approach to teaching and mentoring the next generation of scholars and leaders of change Dr. Nicolaides is co-founder of the Generative Learning and Complexity Laboratory (GLCL) that brings together scholars and practitioners of learning and complexity science to reimagine learning and development through the lens of generative knowing and complexity learning. The results of her scholarship are shaping a new philosophical strand of adult learning, what she describes as Generative Knowing: ways of being and becoming that liberate potential creatively in her first solo book. Dr. Nicolaides is a founding steward and current Director of the International Transformative Learning Association.