Action Research and Curriculum Change in a Medical School: false starts and familiar constraints

ABSTRACT

An initial attempt to introduce action research as part of a curriculum evaluation and design project in the Department of Surgery at the Flinders University of South Australia was rejected. Instead a qualitative evaluation was undertaken with the project facilitator acting as an “outsider” and ‘broker’ of ideas. Nevertheless, as the evaluation proceeded it became difficult to maintain the outsider role and there was an increasing emphasis on the facilitation of collaborative ‘insider’ evaluation. This led to some re‐consideration of the introduction of action research. Before this could be achieved, however, some important constraints to change had to be addressed. Action on the constraints has been associated with opportunities for a new start to action research that, importantly, has been initiated by the staff members of the Department of Surgery. It would appear that the original rejection of action research was a result of a failure to heed advice to ‘start small’ and initially convince staff members of the Department of Surgery of the value of the plan‐act‐reflect cycle. The evaluation component of the project and the shift from outsider to insider would appear to be important steps in the creation of conditions for action and reflection in a positivistic and quantitative environment such as that which existed in the Department of Surgery.