Theory, practice and the philosophy of educational action research in new light
pp. 177-187
in: Alan , E. Paul Hart, Michael A. Peters (eds), A companion to research in education, Berlin, Springer, 2014Abstract
Postmodernist criticisms of emancipatory Critical Theory challenge the ongoing relevance and pertinence of the version of educational action research that has been promoted by Wilfred Carr and Stephen Kemmis. Their perspective on "theory and practice', in particular, attracts John Elliott´s critical attention and his charge of their Habermasian framework with rationalism and finalism. In this chapter, I present the relevant arguments and I discuss some of those criticisms with an eye to issues of emancipation and context-transcendence. In so doing, I employ insights from recent debates between various versions of Frankfurt School Critical Theory (from Apel and Habermas down to Cooke), on the one hand, and adherents to a widely conceived postmodernism (theorists such as Butler, Laclau, Rorty), on the other. My position is that immanence and transcendence as compatible and equally necessary components of a critical educational-theoretical framework are crucial for the preservation of the emancipatory ideal and motivational force of action research today.
