Richard Winter

Finding a voice – thinking with others: a conception of action research

Abstract The main theme of this article is that action research is about seeking a voice with which to speak ones experience and ones ability to learn from that experience. It is also about helping others (our students, our patients, our clients) to find their own voices. Action research is decentralising the production of knowledge. To begin with, the theme is given a historical context by presenting a general contrast between pluralism and managerialism, and the next section articulates the nature of action research by contrasting ‘participatory’ with ‘hierarchical’ structures of knowledge. The next phase of the argument is that an ‘educational’ model of action research (emphasizing continuous self-questioning) does not mean that action research lacks ‘criteria’. The final section makes some suggestions about action research’s inherent criteria by showing how the overall purpose of ‘finding a voice’ and of ‘thinking with others’ requires a particular formulation of the main phases of the inquiry process.

Contextualizing the Patchwork Text: addressing problems of coursework assessment in higher education

The procedures of the Patchwork Text coursework assignment format are outlined, and a general justification of their current educational importance is presented. The argument begins with a review of current literature on assessment processes in higher education, followed by a discussion of work on the nature of ‘academic literacies’. The Patchwork Text is compared with other assignment formats, including the portfolio and, especially, the essay. The advantages of the Patchwork Text over the essay are argued in the light of general theories of the nature of learning.

Truth or fiction: problems of validity and authenticity in narratives of action research

Abstract In what sense is it helpful to argue that the truth criteria for research reports can be understood through analogies with creative narratives, such as novel and short stories? One argument is that both are founded on the notion of constructing the ‘authentic’ voices of those whose world is presented in the narrative. Problems with the concept of authenticity are explored, and a further analogy is presented, between the principles of action research and those of ‘modernist’ fiction, in order to show how narratives can avoid simply reproducing the authoritarian texts of realist fiction and of hierarchically organised research.

Managers, spectators and citizens: where does ‘theory’ come from in action research?

Abstract The importance of the question in the article title (where does ‘theory’ come from in action research?) is that it brings into focus the relationship between higher education institutions and the community (individuals and organisations) they serve. Academic conceptions of theory tend to be prescriptive – theory defining the meaning of action – and managerial conceptions of theory try to take advantage of this (‘evidence-based practice’), but are bound to fail because the nature of social science theory is such that it cannot sustain claims to prescribe action. Theory in an action research process is: (1) a personal, improvised selection of resources; (2) reflexive and multi-disciplinary; (3) speculation on the hypothetical meanings of the immediately observable; and (4) integration of the ideas required for practical action. In this way, action research defines theory as a necessary process for the role of ‘citizens’ in a democracy.

The Patchwork Text: a coursework format for education as critical understanding

Abstract This paper presents a case for a new format for coursework assignments in Higher Education, derived from aesthetic theories of representing understanding, namely the Patchwork Text. It is argued that the essay, on one hand and the reflective journal, on the other, fail to provide real emphasis on balancing diversity and synthesis, judgement and the suspension of judgement, which might be said to characterise a model of Higher Education as a process ‘critical’ understanding. In contrast, this is precisely what the Patchwork text format aims to do. An example is presented of a Patchwork Text produced in the context of social work professional education.

The Problem of Educational Levels, Part II: A New Framework for Credit Accumulation in Higher Education

Abstract (This paper is the sequel to a paper published in the previous issue of the Journal.) There is a fundamental confusion in the categories currently used to present notions of educational levels. These categories are derived from a grading hierarchy, but are used to describe differences between staged educational awards. Empirical data from a recent survey of assessment categories suggests that we use the same categories to assess A level, undergraduate, and postgraduate work. However, it also appears that these three stages can nevertheless be differentiated, not in terms of cognitive function, however, but in terms of the developing social role of the learner and their work. In the light of this argument, a new model for credit accumulation in higher education is proposed.

Education or grading? Arguments for a non-subdivided honours degree

ABSTRACT A fundamental difficulty prevents the incorporation of recent higher education (HE) initiatives (‘enterprise˚s, ‘capability˚s, etc.) into the basic HE course structure. The new initiatives are based on the explicit description of complex learning outcomes, and therefore require criterion-referenced, pass-fail assessment. The classified honours degree, the centre of the current HE course structure, is (in contrast) a norm-referenced format which requires the comparison of candidates with each other. The full implementation of the new initiatives therefore requires the replacement of the classified honours degree with a non-subdivided honours degree, awarded on a pass-fail basis. Such a change would be a valuable educational reform, since the existence and continued influence of the classified honours degree is not a consequence of any justifiable curriculum theory but an historical and a cultural phenomenon, explicable in terms of widespread but questionable common-sense practices, by the ambiguit...

Action research and academic writing: a conversation

Here is a conversation between two former colleagues about action research and academic writing. Richard Winter opens the discussion with a series of reflections on his work as an action researcher. These reflections include the key argument that action research is a noble cause because it is relevant to working life, has a practical impact and enriches what we do in our lives. In response, Graham Badley suggests that, given Richard’s argument, academic writing might, for similar reasons, also be considered both as action research and as a noble cause. Richard replies with a concern that academic writing often becomes a commodity to be traded in the academic marketplace. Graham’s final contribution to this dialogue is a commentary on academic competition and disagreement in academic writing.

'Quality Management’ or ‘The Educative Workplace’: Alternative Versions of Competence‐Based Education

Abstract Competence‐based education has been the topic of considerable criticism recently. The purpose of this article is to argue that much of it is more justifiable as a critique of the particular format in which it is currently presented than of its underlying principles. A detailed critical analysis of the MCI materials in Management Education is presented, in order to show how many of the problems raised by these documents have been resolved in an alternative format for competence‐based education devised by the ASSET Programme, a competence‐based degree level qualification is social work, recently developed by the author and a colleague from Essex Social Services Department.

Work‐based Learning and Quality Assurance in Higher Education

ABSTRACT The debate concerning quality assurance in higher education is frequently conducted in terms originating outside the culture of academic institutions, such as ‘fitness for purpose’ and ‘meeting customer expectations’, which are often experienced as jarring with traditional conceptions of higher education. However, quality assurance issues surrounding the accreditation of work‐based learning within academic awards suggest how these terms may serve to pose some useful general challenges to current modes of assessment. In particular, the recognition of the need to be as precise as possible about anticipated learning outcomes, characteristic of procedures for accrediting work‐based learning, offers some useful lessons in managing the quality of traditionally taught courses.