Jack Whitehead shares a perspective on the central role of values in education and action research. Comment on what the “living contradiction” (Wood, 2014, p. 43) of values and practice in action research means to you. Text or audio voiceover is acceptable with references given in the text (250 words = 2 minutes).

            I cannot think of a more critical area of action research, and all research for that matter, than integrity and values. I interpret the meaning of “living contradiction,” like (Whitehead 1989), as someone not living according to their values. I think most of us are guilty of that at some point or another in our lives. For example, while living Christian values but believing in capital punishment. A second example with a law enforcement flavour would be being taught to uphold the laws fairly for everyone but being trained in undercover work to lie, cheat, and steal—all necessary evils to survive in the underground drug world.  Therefore, I find action research very interesting and yet challenging by relying heavily on balancing personal values.

            I will be conducting interviews for my research project that rely heavily on ethical issues. My interviews will be as deep and probing as possible. I know ethical problems in interview research arise mainly because of the complexities of “researching private lives and placing accounts in the public arena” (Birch et al., 2002, p. 1). I am aware that human interaction with participants will affect them somehow or another, and the knowledge produced will affect how we understand the human condition. For example, a participant may be unaware they have PTSD, and I ask a question(s) that may negatively affect them emotionally. This may require that I then refer the participant to seek psychological help.

            Interview research is full of moral and ethical issues, so it is incumbent on me to follow strict formal ethical guidelines. This will help direct me to avoid tension involving my personal biases and direct the interview results to satisfy my research question. I know my values will support my research to be rigorous and ethical rather than sabotage it, thus, avoiding a living contradiction.

Laurie

 Birch, M., Miller, T., Mauthner, M., & Jessop, J. (Eds.) (2002). Ethics in qualitative research. Sage.

Whitehead J 1989. Creating a living educational theory from questions of the kind: How do I improve my practice? Cambridge Journal of Education, 19 (1): 41-52. https://actionresearch.net/writings/livtheory.html