Educational poetics: an aesthetic approach to action research

ISSN： 0965-0792

Source： Educational Action Research, Vol.16, Iss.3, 2008-09, pp. : 309-319

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Abstract

In this article, Gitlin and Peck argue that much of the development of action research has been based on a reconstructed view of science (i.e., a science that is more contextual, less law-like, less causal, but still accurately represents reality and is teacher centered as opposed to researcher centered). In contrast to this reconstructed view of science, the authors suggest it is time to look at the limits and possibilities of basing action research on an aesthetic view of knowledge production. Gitlin and Peck do so by providing an outline of educational poetics that uses imagination and creativity to unearth and challenge limiting conceptions of commonsense as the action research participants enter into a freedom quest, to utilize imagination and creativity, our inherent human potential, to think beyond the categories and codes that tie us to the status quo.