Validating Action Research Field Studies: PEArL

The difficulty of establishing the validity of Action Research field studies has been well documented. Enabling interested individuals to follow the route of inquiry, or “recover” the inquiry process, has provided some means of addressing the difficult issue of validation. Such an approach, however, still fails to provide a sense of the manner in which an inquiry was undertaken, which can be important when individuals, participants in the inquiry or otherwise, are making their own judgments concerning validity. In this paper we argue that by supporting any interested individuals in making their own judgments concerning the manner in which the inquiry process was undertaken, it is possible for a public perception of the authenticity and credibility, or character, of that inquiry process to emerge. We argue that such a perception is an essential aspect of making judgments concerning the validity of an Action Research project.