Collaborative and action research within education: A Nordic perspective

Although widespread in the Anglo Saxon tradition of education, action research in the Nordic countries is influenced more by outcomes from other areas, such as work sciences. The purpose of this paper is to comprehend action research within the Nordic educational tradition as rooted in concepts of ‘Bildung’, ‘pedagogy’ and ‘folk enlightenment’. A case study describing an early childhood teacher, Mia, is presented to demonstrate how the personal, professional and political dimensions of action research are realised within both the individual and the extra-individual realms. The story is also used as an example to establish a Nordic variant of action research where parallels with knowledge creation in study and research circles are evident. This variant, which we call ‘Collaborative and Action Research’ builds, first, on collaboration between education professionals and, secondly, on collaboration between researchers and practitioners.