Limits and scope of the use of research - action as a tool for transformation

The purpose of the essay is to analyze the limits and scope of the use of action research as a tool for transformation, for which the theoretical postulates of Mercedes (2002), Rodríguez (1996), Colmenares and Piñero (2008), among others, were reviewed.. The study reveals the importance of carrying out this type of research with meticulous and detailed procedures, for which it is required that the researcher have sufficient professional competence not to distort subjectivity, rigorously evaluating the opinion of the social actors involved, actively incorporating them into the intervention proposal out of conviction and not because of the urgency of the need, resulting in the fact that the aspects to be taken into account are valid for any type of research - action selected by the researcher,considering the responsibility, the intention of the research, their interests and the study of the human being as a complex subject, requiring a permanent evaluation of all its elements. Taking as a reflection, the researcher must have previous experiences and correct actions to achieve positive influence on those investigated and obtain the expected changes from them, requiring to consider additional points of importance, needing to know the actors who will be part of the research, as well as its context.The researcher must have previous experiences and correct actions to achieve a positive influence on those investigated and obtain the expected changes from them, requiring the consideration of additional points of importance, needing to know the actors who will be part of the research, as well as their context.The researcher must have previous experiences and correct actions to achieve a positive influence on those investigated and obtain the expected changes from them, requiring the consideration of additional points of importance, needing to know the actors who will be part of the research, as well as their context.

Keywords: Scope, limits, transformation

Introduction

All qualitative research begins with the idea of generating a change to improve a specific situation. In reference to this, Sabino (2002) believes that qualitative designs are in no way simpler or easier to develop than other types of design, on the contrary, they require a very careful work of data collection, analysis and interpretation that only it can be done after proper preparation.

The author adds that it is not simply a matter of interviewing people and collecting their opinions, or of freely interpreting these data or others that may be available to the researcher, qualitative analysis forces, on the contrary, to control and make one's own subjectivity aware, to evaluate the answers carefully, to incorporate much previous knowledge to the necessary and complex task of interpretation.

This interpretation is aimed at causing changes in the reality studied, incorporating the subjects involved in the research, to actively participate in the intervention proposal. Always taking into account that there are psychological barriers, on the part of the researcher as well as those investigated, since they take more into account the present than the future, presenting interferences that arise from the particularities of people, such as their habits, customs, past experiences, even their perceptions preventing listening and understanding.

For this, action research has been a benchmark in the field of qualitative research, in this case it allows us to know the problems from experiences. In this regard, Rodríguez (1996) points out the origin of action research in Lewin's work in the immediate period after the Second World War. According to the author, Lewin identified four phases in AI (planning, acting, observing, and reflecting) and envisioned it based on principles that could lead "gradually toward independence, equality, and cooperation" (Lewin, 1946).

Given the above conditions, action research includes processes aimed at the realization of those intrinsic values to certain reality. Although it focuses on a single site, there are external factors that must be considered in the research process, which may or may not be favorable when developing the experiences.

The purpose of this research is to know the scope and limitations of action research as a tool for transformation, since in recent years it has grown dramatically as a study in qualitative research, so it does it as a reference to educational practices and social, since it is based on the intrinsic, considering its particularities, modifying and improving the behavior of those involved, including who is responsible for promoting it.

Therefore, knowing the aspects related to it will allow the success of the transformation. Therefore, throughout the investigation, some theoretical references will emerge that will support the study, so it is expected that through its contribution it will allow to visualize and anticipate the various factors that can be used for or against for the development of an action research experience from an epistemic approach.

It is expected that the study, in addition to contributing to the development of theories that seek to deepen the understanding of action research, will also provide theoretical and application inputs linked to the transformation of realities. Throwing as results that the aspects to be taken into account are valid for any type of research - action that the researcher selects, as long as he considers the following points: responsibility, the intention of the research, his interests and the study of the human being as a complex subject.

Action research: some theoretical conceptions

Kemmis and McTaggart (1988: 10) state that action research is a form of collective introspective inquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their social or educational practices, as well as their understanding of those practices. and the situations in which they take place. For the changes to be accepted, all parties involved in the process must be involved, making their contributions and opinions can be reflected in the final state, after the change.

By the way, points out Colmenares and Piñero (2008) “the contributions and scope of qualitative research to education translate into great diversity and complexity around the modalities, traditions, typologies or methodologies used”. In this order, contextualization is decisive within the type of study that the researcher wishes to carry out. Complementing the above, Latorre (2007), following the position of some authors, mentions three types of action research:

Technical action research, the purpose of which would be to make social practices more effective, through the participation of teachers in work programs designed by experts or a team, in which the purposes of the same and the methodological development to be followed are predetermined Practical action research implies transformation of the consciousness of the participants, as well as change in social practices. The expert person is a consultant to the process, participates in the dialogue to support the cooperation of the participants, active participation and social practices. Critical, emancipatory action research incorporates the ideas of critical theory. It focuses on educational praxis. She strives to change the ways of working (constituted by speech,.organization and power relations).

For Colmenares (2012) each of these paradigms assumes an ontological, epistemological, methodological and ethical vision that guides the researcher on how he is going to direct his object of study, reality; how it is going to relate to knowledge, the ways of knowing that reality, even how it is going to present the findings that emerge from its research

As can be seen, the scope of action research is broad and goes beyond the strictly educational frontiers (the basic decisions of organization and operation in the center or classroom); to be extended to any sector; even to the business world, going through any project of social policy, community development or cultural type.

Similarly, the author explains that each paradigm deserves a concordant methodology that allows the development of investigative processes; In the case of the social-critic, the method is represented by action-research that guides the procedures, techniques and instruments in accordance with the onto-epistemic vision assumed by the researcher, to which the author adds that it is a methodology that presents certain characteristics particular that distinguish it from other options under the qualitative approach.

That is why action research involves establishing new relationships with other people. Thus, it is convenient to develop some skills regarding knowing how to listen to others, knowing how to manage information, knowing how to relate to other people, knowing how to involve them in the research and include them in a consensual way in the study, following a method that the researchers have designed.

It should be added, the approach of Yuni and Urbano (2005) referring that the research - action is framed in a research model of greater commitment to social changes, since it is based on a position regarding the intrinsic value that knowledge of the own practice and personal ways of interpreting.

It is appropriate to mention then that the researcher must have enough information and competence to efficiently comply with the steps because working with those involved requires even achieving empathy, since it implies that the actors will be analyzed from their own experience, through a cyclical process that is determined by the researcher, which goes from reflection to transformative action, being the ultimate goal of Action Research.

In Suarez's (2002) point, action research has been questioned as a research modality for two important aspects:

“Objectivity and generalization, criticisms that also concern other qualitative and critical research. From a technical-scientific approach, AI is accused of lacking objectivity, above all because researchers are highly involved in the situation investigated and because the motivation, in some cases political, that governs the projects can condition the results. Authors who work in the line of AI defend themselves by arguing that objectivity is typical of the investigation of the physical-natural world, but that when it comes to social contexts, technical or instrumental knowledge is not the only or the most important; there are other epistemological requirements such as interactive knowledge or critical knowledge (Park, 1992), which are situated in the world of the subjective, the situational and the structural ”.

This type of research generally does not use statistical references, (it is something properly of positivist research) but the description of reality and the reaction of the investigated subjects, allowing the generation of new knowledge from the behavior of each one, rethinking new actions, which is why many of the authors define it as a cyclical investigation, and therefore belongs to a single, non-generalizable context.

To this end, Latorre (2005) highlights the need to involve other people in the project, “it is an idea, mostly shared, that action research should be carried out in groups whenever possible, given the advantages and mutual enrichment that working in a group involves. In the same sense, Colmenares (2012) highlights the following:

“Research - action, research - participatory action, or research-action in the classroom, according to the trend chosen to address a reality to be studied, presents phases, stages or moments that are important to know for the adequate empowerment of researchers and co-investigators, so that a systematic, rigorous, critical and legitimately scientific investigation is carried out, as was the initial approach of Kurt Lewin, father of this methodology ”.

In the same order, Colmenares and Piñero cite Suárez (2002), to indicate that researchers must assume the role of agents of change, together with the people to whom the intervention proposals were directed, for those moments according to the The author, certain characteristic features of action research were already glimpsed, such as knowledge, intervention, improvement and collaboration.

In the same way, to understand action research from this framework is to consider it as a methodology that pursues both action and research results; as a dialogue between action and research. It involves testing ideas in practice as a means of improving social conditions and increasing knowledge.

From this perspective and following the opinion of Latorre (2005), it identifies some difficulties linked to the institutionalization process, among which we can mention: resistance to change in educational centers, lack of time to dedicate to the tasks of research and innovation, the difficulty of interpersonal communication, the lack of infrastructure and technical support for the process, and the arbitrary exercise of power.

With this in mind, Mercedes (2002) states that, due to its complexity, it is recommended to start with specific, interesting but simple problems, to gradually expand the object of investigation and go into successive cycles in larger issues; in the same way, it is also necessary to start working in small groups, to gradually include a greater number of people.

It means then, that it is important to ask oneself to what extent the transformation of reality will transcend, or who guarantees that it will continue over time. Depending on the purpose of the research, the researcher must know what the limitations for development would be. It should be noted that any process of change generates uncertainty in all actors, therefore, different forms of clarification should be sought for one or another process that generates this change.

Implemented methodology

For the research, the epistemological perspective was assumed, they allowed to link the position of various authors and the intention of the research. To do this, the theories of Kemmis, Rodríguez, Mercedes and Piñero, Latorre, among others, were reviewed, through reasoning and argumentation, theoretical propositions were formulated, determining the results.

Design of the investigation

The design refers to a coherent work plan to obtain and study the data that bring us closer to the knowledge of the reality of the study, in this regard Sabino (2002: 63) points out, its purpose “is to provide a verification model that allows contrasting facts with theories, and its form is that of a strategy or general plan that determines the operations necessary to do so ”.

Therefore, the research is of a bibliographic type because the data used were already collected in other research, identifying it as secondary data. The author explains that a bibliographic inquiry "is that it can include a wide range of phenomena, since it not only has to be based on the facts to which he has direct access, but it can be extended to encompass a greater experience" (pg.65)

Investigation method

It is the rigorous procedure, formulated in a logical way that the researcher must follow in the acquisition of knowledge. In the opinion of Méndez (2001: 146) “the method allows to organize the general logical procedure to be followed in knowledge, and to arrive at the observation, description and explanation of reality.

The research method used is analysis, since through the theoretical review it made possible the interpretation of reality. Méndez (2001: 141) points out that the method of analysis "is a process of knowledge that begins with the identification of each of the parts that characterize a reality"

Final thoughts

Action-research does not break down an objective procedure, but rather discussions about information and experiences, each one being analyzed within the competence of the investigation. This type of research does not use statistical references, but rather the description of reality and the reaction of the investigated subjects, allowing the generation of new knowledge from the being of each one, discovering new potentialities to generate transformation.

To put together the planning of the actions to be carried out, it is necessary to consider many additional points of importance, it is necessary to know the actors who will be part of the investigation, knowing the basic aspects: who it is and how it will get there. As previously explained, each citizen is an individual subject who has his or her own characteristics and particular needs. By listening to them, strategies can be developed to design the plan, being enough to obtain accurate information and serve as supports for change.

It is important to emphasize that action research does not generalize, what worked in one case will not necessarily be useful for other studies of the same similarity, the human being is complex and is always in search of the truth that allows generating changes. However, some aspects could be considered and reinvented, since it is not useful for other contexts.

Summary

Keywords: Scope, limits, transformation

Bibliographic references

Colmenares, A. (2012). research - participatory action: an integrative methodology of knowledge and action. Libertador Experimental Pedagogical University. Caracas, Venezuela, Colmenares, A. and Piñero M. LA INVESTIGACIÓN ACCIÓN. A heuristic methodological tool for the understanding and transformation of socio-educational realities and practices Laurus, vol. 14, no. 27, May-August, 2008, Libertador Experimental Pedagogical University. Caracas, Venezuela Mendez, C. (2001). Methodology. Design and development of the research process. Third edition. Mc Graw Hill. Bogotá. Colombia.Rodríguez, G., Methodology of qualitative research. Aljibe Editions. Malaga, Spain. 1996. P.39-59 Sabino, C. (2002). The investigation process. Caracas, Venezuela Suarez, M.(2002) Some reflections on collaborative action research in education. Electronic Journal of Science Education, Vol. 1, No. 1, 40-56. University of Vigo. Spain.Latorre, A. (2005). Action Research. Know and change educational practice. Editorial Graó, from IRIF, SL El Francesc Tarrega, 32-34. 08027. Barcelona.