Anglia Ruskin University

We would like to welcome you to the CARN 2010 International Conference, hosted this year at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. Our theme this year is:

Action Research in Diverse Contexts: contemporary challenges. As is usual with CARN Conferences we aim to provide a friendly and inclusive forum for participants to share their research and practice issues in a challenging yet supportive environment. We have identified a series of questions to address the theme of the conference.

What are the challenges to be faced and strategies to facilitate:

1. Student and service user participation in action research?
2. The use of creative arts as a medium for action research?
3. Action research in community settings?
4. Action research in interprofessional contexts?
5. Action research in complex organisations?

The format of the Conference will be such that opportunities for formal and informal discussion and networking will be maximised.

The 2010 International Conference of the Collaborative Action Research Network Conference Theme Action Research in Diverse Contexts: contemporary challenges.

As a catalyst to discussion we have three interesting and thought provoking keynote speakers from a variety of contexts:

John Elliott

'Constructing a values Framework for Pedagogical Research: a proposal'

John Elliott is Emeritus Professor of Education in the Centre for Applied Research in Education at the University of East Anglia, UK. He is well-known internationally for his work generally in the field of curriculum development and research, and more specifically for his contribution to the theory and practice of action research in curriculum change contexts. UEA awarded him a D.Litt degree for his published work (2003), and he has received Doctorates, honoris causa, from the Hong Kong Institute of Education (2002) and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2003). His selected work entitled ?Reflecting Where the Action is? is published in the Routledge World Library of Educationalists (2007).

Margaret Ledwith

Margaret Ledwith lives in Lancaster where she is Emeritus Professor of Community Development and Social Justice at the University of Cumbria. She is also a coordinator of the international Collaborative Action Research Network. For many years, she was a community worker in a variety of contexts in Scotland and North-West England, and it was this experience of working with marginalised communities that forged the foundation of a lifetime commitment to social justice. She has written three books: Participating in Transformation: Towards a working model of community empowerment (1997), Community Development: A critical approach (2005), and, with Jane Springett, Participatory Practice: Community-based action for transformative change (2009). Policy Press recently awarded her ?bestselling title of all time? and a ?lifetime achievement? for Community Development: A critical approach.

Olav Eikeland

'Habitus-Validity in Organisational Theory and Research - Social Research and Work Life Transformed'

Olav Eikeland has a PhD in ancient Greek philosophy, but has worked as an organisational action researcher since the mid 1980s. His particular interest is how ancient philosophy of dialogue, AR, and organisational learning may contribute to the current transit from (broadly speaking) a "mode 1" (socially monopolized) knowledge production to a "mode 2" (socially distributed) knowledge production. From 1985 until 2008 he worked at the Work Research Institute in Oslo as researcher, as research coordinator, and as CEO / Research Director. He is currently Professor and Research Director at the Faculty of Technical and Vocational Teacher Education / Akershus University College near Oslo, Norway.