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Learning About Action Research in and From the Middle East

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Abstract

Who we are and become is influenced by our relationships in different times and spaces. In this paper, I tell stories about my professional education work with others in the Middle East and elsewhere that shows this process in action. However, this view of the evolutionary nature of identity requires a different epistemology from the dominant either-or epistemology of conventional higher education. Through stories about interactions with others in higher education, I explain how such a divisive epistemological form encourages divisive social practices. Further, given current misappropriations of action research by a traditionalist academy, this form now infiltrates action research discourses. Finding ways to create pluralist identities therefore becomes the responsibility of academics who thereby legitimize a dynamic epistemological form through their own action enquiries.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. York St John University, York, UK

    Jean McNiff

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  1. Jean McNiff
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Leadership & Education Sciences, University of San Diego, San Diego, California, USA

    Lonnie L. Rowell

  2. School of Education, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada

    Catherine D. Bruce

  3. Education Department, Moravian College, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA

    Joseph M. Shosh

  4. Center for Collaborative Action Research, Pepperdine University, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Margaret M. Riel

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McNiff, J. (2017). Learning About Action Research in and From the Middle East. In: Rowell, L., Bruce, C., Shosh, J., Riel, M. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Action Research. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40523-4_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40523-4_16

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-44108-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-40523-4

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