‘Fasten your seatbelts and hold on tight to your values!’ An interactive and interdisciplinary workshop exploring the definition and interpretation of ‘critical moments’ in Participatory Action Research

We work in health, education and social care settings in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, each of us using action research within our research and practice settings. Since meeting at CARN 2023, we have formed a collaborative working group; affectionately known as ‘Critical Companions’, meeting regularly online to discuss and share our thinking about action research. As part of our conversations, we have shared our commitment to the importance of upholding our values in action research.

As McNiff and Whitehead state, action research typically explores issues relating to social justice, compassionate ways of being, and respect, yet can take place in contexts where these values are ‘prized in principle but denied in practice’ (2002, p.17). We have come to notice this denial in our research, creating tension between our values and practices, and term these as ‘critical moments’. Acknowledging and addressing these tensions has resulted in new learning. This includes about our selves and our identities as researchers and practitioners, the methods we use in our action research projects, and the communities we are researching with.

In our workshop, we aim to support others who may be experiencing critical moments in their own action research. Through a variety of interactive and guided group activities and discussions, we will facilitate exploration of different critical moments and their intra-action with values. We will firstly share some of our experiences of critical moments in our research projects. Participants will then be encouraged to share their insights and experiences - what critical moments have they encountered; how have these been addressed. Participants will also be encouraged to share their own suggestions of how these may be addressed in order to support one another and to generate new learning about values in action research. We hope that by engaging on our workshop, those who attend will further their own personal and practical knowledge of the importance of values in action research.