Slaying my own ghosts: My process into action research

Abstract

In this article, I explain how I broke with the epistemological tradition in which I had been trained, in a process I call “Slaying my own ghosts.” I took this step when I was deciding on the approach of my action research dissertation. I explain the breaks with five ideas: there are diverse ways of generating knowledge; the researcher constructs knowledge through interpretation; context matters; the action researcher alters the process for good; action research produces academic and pragmatic knowledge. The article is written in the first person because it is associated with a personal process that I needed to resolve in order to develop the approach of my thesis. My analysis of this personal process highlights the indissolubility of the relationship between the researcher and the person as well as the difficulty and complexity of processes of change. I believe it may be of help to both researchers who have decided to develop action research dissertations and those who have to lead processes involving profound changes in people.