ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the following issues: what counts as good practice and good research; where to see the achievement of criteria and standards of judgement within reports; establishing the legitimacy of action research and action research reports. The issue of establishing quality in action research is perennial. In recent decades, significant changes have taken place in the assessment of quality in research. In earlier times quality was judged according to traditional social science criteria. Many people in institutions of higher education and corporate boardrooms still do not regard practitioners, whether in workplaces or in those same higher education and corporate contexts, as legitimate knowledge creators, nor do they regard practitioner-based enquiry as a legitimate form of theory generation. Foucault speaks about capillary action, as power is drawn along the threads of relationships and comes to rest in some people but not in others.
