Qualitative Activist Research

Abstract

This chapter presents an analysis in which we presume that applied social psychological research is designed not only to explain, but also to provoke social change. Drawing on the early writings of Kurt Lewin (1948), and later from Carolyn Payton (1984), we view the tasks of such researchers to be the facilitation and documentation of structural and social change processes. In this chapter, we review our methodology, qualitative activist research, through a single-case study of our work with a public urban school district in the midst of restructuring its high schools. This chapter attempts to portray critically the themes, tensions, and productive possibilities that emerge once an activist research stance is assumed.