Researching on inclusive education in Spain: how does action research question the roles adopted by researchers in knowledge mobilization processes?

ABSTRACT

Addressing the bridge between theory and practice in the field of inclusive education in Spain involves searching for strategies of knowledge mobilisation, and action research (AR) is one of them. This study explores how its practical development questions the roles that researchers adopt throughout the process. A content analysis of several focus groups raises questions about the challenges that researchers undertake, and the dilemmas they face due to the need to develop a more participatory, transformative, and emancipatory action research. As conclusions of this study, we emphasise that the roles adopted by researchers are configured by their positioning when choosing AR as a method for investigating critical transformation of reality, their different conceptions of what knowledge mobilisation is, and their commitment to the precepts of inclusion.

KEYWORDS:

• Inclusive education
• action research
• role
• knowledge mobilisation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the AICO/2018/066 [This work is part of the R&D project funded by the Generalitat Valenciana: Grants for consolidatable research groups.].