ABSTRACT
During recent years I have been struck by the variety of responses to action research by different communities. Workplace-based practitioners welcome it. They frequently comment, ‘This is what I do in any case, only now there is a theoretical framework to it.’ The easy way in which practitioners relate to the methodologies is borne out I think in the ready take-up for courses, and the ways in which people rapidly transfer their learning into strategies to improve workplace experience on a range of fronts. Quite the opposite happens in many encounters in higher education institutional contexts, particularly the more conservative ones. Reactions vary from interest to hostility. This has made me think carefully about what action research stands for to provoke such a variety of reactions, some of which can be quite emotionally charged.
