Section archive - Research Methods

The core empirical basis of this article is based upon the author’s recent participatory action research case study conducted in a rural school in one of the most disadvantageous districts of Sindh, Pakistan. This article explores how a teacher educator may empower a rural school by engaging key stakeholders in therapeutic enquiry, utilizing 'Great Conversation' as an alternative pedagogy for school improvement and reforms.

Within an undergraduate programme, a four-year action research project implemented, evaluated and refined a regime of peer assessment focused on generating high-quality peer feedback. Changes in structure and process transformed a system that had initially been characterised by a reluctance to criticise fellow students into one that produced immediate, reflective and useful peer feedback. The two key factors in this transformation appear to be: making peer assessment openly and exclusively formative; and vesting ownership of all data generated by the process in the student being assessed.

This article explores the significance of Bridget Somekh‘s work for methodology, professional practice and for what may be called the 'project' of action research as the development of 'communities of research-practitioners' who in some way seek to 'improve' the quality of their action within their workplace. In many ways her 'project' has been, and still is, the project of embedding action research into professional practice at all levels, from day-to-day interactions in schools and communities to policy-making. The 'good' of Bridget Somekh that emerges from this discussion is precisely the project of getting people's voices heard as they combine in action to make a real difference in their workplaces, communities or at policy level.

The article will review some of Bridget Somekh's action research projects as attempts to build networks of trust and reciprocity across a range of educational stake-holders. The article will also examine Bridget's wider role within the education action research movement as a whole, looking at her achievements as a facilitator of networks of action researchers across national, professional and ideological boundaries.