Since its inception, action research has been the subject of confusion and controversy. Can something be research if it doesn¿t «prove» anything? Can something be action research if it¿s a project run by an expert who does not consider participants co-researchers? Questions multiply when the general term is limited to critical action research. What makes critical action research different from action research generally?
Can the action research project of a classroom teacher intended to raise standardized test scores properly be considered critical? Is there a role for advocacy in any enterprise calling itself research? If critical action research is distinct from traditional empirical research, then what formats make sense for sharing results? This highly diverse collection of previously unpublished and published works offers a sampling of opinions on key theoretical and methodological questions, complemented by a wide range of critical action research reports illustrating what various theories look like in practice. The book provides a sketch of the topography of critical action research terrain and illuminates some diverse paths through it.

Patricia H. Hinchey is Professor of Education at Penn State and a Research Fellow at the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She holds a doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University, and has authored numerous articles as well as several books on topics including critical theory, education for civic engagement, action research, and teacher assessment. Dr. Hinchey is also a former director of a professional development unit for faculty on Penn State¿s regional campuses.

Contents: Ben W. M. Boog: The Emancipatory Character of Action Research, Its History and the Present State of the Art - Gaile S. Cannella/Yvonna S. Lincoln: Deploying Qualitative Methods for Critical Social Purposes -
Kimberly Kinsler: The Utility of Educational Action Research for Emancipatory Change - Marie Brennan/Susan E. Noffke: Uses of Data in Action Research - Carolyn M. Shields: Critical Advocacy Research: An Approach Whose Time Has Come - Phil Francis Carspecken: Limits to Knowledge and Being Human: What Is «Critical» in Critical Social Research and Theory? - Jennifer Esposito/Venus Evans-Winters: Contextualizing Critical Action Research: Lessons from Urban Educators - Eduardo Lopez: From Disillusionment to Hope: Bicultural Practitioner Research - Jennifer Zapata: Teaching Beyond the Skill and Drill: Reimagining Curriculum and Learning in a High-Stakes Testing Environment - Rachel Klimke: Big History, Little World: The Politics of Social Justice Curriculum in Advanced Placement World History - Nien N. Tran: Challenging Standardized Curriculum: Recognizing, Critiquing, and Attempting to Transform the Learning Process - Inga Wilder: Perceptions of Health Education among Adolescents in an Urban School: A Project to Promote Empowerment and Health Literacy in an Underserved Community - Caitlin Cahill: Doing Research with Young People: Participatory Research and the Rituals of Collective Work - Madeline Fox/Michelle Fine: Circulating Critical Research: Reflections on Performance and Moving Inquiry into Action - Carolina Muñoz Proto: In Search of Critical Knowledge: Tracing Inheritance in the Landscape of Incarceration - Jennifer Ayala: Split Scenes, Converging Visions: The Ethical Terrains Where PAR and Borderlands Scholarship Meet - A. Suresh Canagarajah: From Critical Research Practice to Critical Research Reporting - Kath Fisher/Renata Phelps: Recipe or Performing Art?: Challenging Conventions for Writing Action Research Theses - Jessica Blanchard: Narrative Study in the Classroom - Knowing What Was, What Is, and What Could Be - Lisa Sibbett: From Deficit to Abundance in the Classroom; Or What I Learned From Jayda - Rebecca Luce-Kapler: Reverberating the Action Research Text - Antoinette Olberg/Joy Collins/Colleen Ferguson/David Freeman/Rita Levitz/Mary Lou McCaskell/Brigid Walters: Sojourning: Locating Ourselves in the Landscape - Edward J. Brantmeier: Wounded in the Field of Inquiry: Vulnerability in Critical Research - Janet L. Miller: Disruptions in the Field: An Academic's Lived Practice with Classroom Teachers - Pamela J. Konkol/Simeon Stumme/Isabel Nuñez: Who Says We Can't Make a Silk Purse Out of a Sow's Ear?: Transforming Market-based Programs into Critical Education - Jeanine M. Staples/Talia Carroll/Donna Marie Cole-Mallot/Jennifer Myler/Corey Simmons/Julie Schappe/Theresa Adkins: Forming New Agreements: A Brief Critical Exploration of the Pedagogical Formations of Predominantly White, Preservice Teachers in an Urban Context - Stephen R. Couch: A Tale of Three Discourses: Doing Action Research in a Research Methods Class.