ABSTRACT

Action learning can be complementary to, and supportive of, such developmental approaches as coaching, mentoring, professional supervision, practice development and communities of practice. It is focused on learning for those directly involved in a challenge or question, whereas in action research a team of people draw collective learning from a collective experience. Action learning can be distinguished, ultimately, by the sovereignty that it gives to those who actually face challenges and by its scepticism regarding experts of all kinds. Given the similarity of the names, action learning and action research can superficially be seen as being one and the same. Even though action learning and action research may look broadly similar, the two have fundamentally different approaches. Action research is generally a cyclical and iterative research approach, conducted within specific and often practical organisational contexts, undertaken with rigour and understanding, so as to constantly generate new knowledge and to refine practice.