ABSTRACT
The aspiration of collaborative, self-critical enquiry on the part of practitioners is constantly eroded by the need to be credentialled or otherwise supported by academic centres whose own agendas often lead to hegemonies in research approaches and relationships. Terms such as ‘empowerment’, ‘emancipation’ and ‘ownership’ signal external agency. This chapter seeks to clarify practitioner control over the entire action research process by exploring the term ‘authorship’ in the context of an appraisal project involving nearly four hundred individuals. Using action research as the basis of a radical approach to appraisal, the cycle of planning a focus, gathering evidence, self-evaluation, modification and further planning was introduced by an action research project team into all staff’s professional work in a large, mixed economy college. The appraiser, as critical friend, would seek to develop a discourse with the appraisee which would explore the relationships between professional practice and evidence (research methods) and between evidence and selfevaluation (analysis). Finally, the pairing would produce a statement of the outcomes of their engagement (reporting).
