Update from the World Congress of Action Research posted by Mary Brydon-Miller

Just back from Melbourne and the World Congress of Action Research.

Me and my canine friend Lucy at a beachbox on Brighton Beach

The Melbourne Skyline

Robin McTaggart and Jacques Boulet at the World Congress

I can’t possibly do justice here to all of the brillant work that was presented and will hope to be able to invite some of the folks I heard speak to post to the blog themselves over the next few weeks, but highlights from the event included Budd Hall’s address on the knowledge democracy movement, Yoland Wadworth’s book launch, and Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s presentation on Māori methodology and her search for decolonizing methodologies. I’ve always really admired Smith’s work and it was wonderful to have the opportunity to hear her speak. Marie Brennan’s talk was also an amazing analysis of neoliberalism and education.

David Coghlan, Pat Maguire, Rosalie Holian and I had a session on ethics and action research in which we discussed the ways in which covenantal ethics and the model I dicussed in the blog earlier could be applied to insider action research, teacher action research, and community-based action research. I especially appreciated the discussion that followed our presentations and the feedback we received from those attending the session, which will certainly inform the next iteration of this idea.

We also had a session on global networking in which we presented a first draft map of action research sites around the world and shared this blog site with everyone! We’ll post the map to the blog as soon as we get it updated with all the sites we gathered from folks at the WC. You’ll be amazed to see the diversity of sites from all around the world engaged in various forms of action research…it’s really inspiring!

But of course the best part of such events is always seeing old friends and meeting new ones and the four days were filled with such moments. It was wonderful to see everyone and thanks to Jacques, Mish, Meg and all the other folks at Borderlands and ALARA for their warm welcome.