Transformative action research

Abstract

This is a case study of the Papua New Guinea Community Teachers College (PNG CTC) Lecturers Professional Development Project–a joint project of the Australian and Papua New Guinean governments arranged as part of Australia's recent overseas aid programme. A central feature of the project was a range of workshops conducted in PNG designed to enable the Community Teachers Colleges to reform their curriculum and to contribute to the professional development of college lecturers. Action research was intended to play a role in both of these matters. As the project developed, a style of action research began to take shape which we have labelled “transformative”. Its particular features are a capacity to generate cross-cultural collaboration, to nurture practices of shared governance, and to encourage a form of transformational leadership, all of which significantly contribute to the sustainable development of the project's outcomes. The practices of transformative action research are illustrated within the case study so that other action researchers can explore them further in other situations as part of our overall quest to improve the practice of action research itself. © 1997, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.