Critical action research: possibilities for understanding and transforming teaching practice

Abstract

Taking the need of investigative practices at school into consideration, this article highlights the methodological principles that are typical of pedagogical action- research. This kind of research is offered as a possibility to trigger collaborative practices. In order to support this methodology, I sought for theoretical support in Habermas, Freire and Franco, among others. This paper emphasizes the collaborative participation as methodological principles, the critical exercise of cyclical spirals and the co-production of information and knowledge. It is based on excerpts of previous research that have been carried out, in order to emphasize the value and importance of training projects that can be used to foster collective dynamics and thus create a common body of knowledge among the participants. Investigations that provide evidence for the article claim that action-research, when carried out within the aforementioned principles, is the research method of preference to create processes that make the understanding and transformation of pedagogical practices easier, in both collective and shared manners.