Constructive developmental interiority: Deliberately transformative action research

Abstract

This paper focuses on the process and theory of action-research for transformation (ART) targeting individual transformation as a required means for global change. Addressing the lack of a practical framework to organize and report transformation, we conceptualise, identify and demonstrate an approach by linking ART with Interiority and Constructive Development Theory. Interiority focuses on the individual’s sense-making as it relates to the sensed world and provides direction for data to be collected. Crucially, the individual’s capacity for sense-making impacts how data are identified, experienced, interpreted and evaluated. It is shifts in this capacity that constitute fundamental transformation required to better handle complexity and ambiguity - intrinsic to ART. We propose Constructive Developmental Interiority (CDI) that provides a lens to recognise, analyse and frame constructive developmental shifts. Two case studies are presented in which researchers engaged in applying CDI for transformation. Both cases highlight, through first-person action-research and reflexive collaboration, that although the will to address developmental transformational challenges was an espoused motivation, its misalignment with the capacities for transformative change is always a possibility. Applying CDI reveals the nature of the challenge (time, effort and support), how transitions were made, and the potential for transformational impact.