This paper addresses three challenges facing action learning -- the implications of its historical roots for the present; the encounter of action learning within different cultures and a tension within action learning itself. It concludes that deeper understanding of all three is necessary for action learning's continuing development.

This account explores the experience of an action inquiry approach to develop a coaching culture within a public service organisation. We position action inquiry as a fresh interpretation of action learning that draws on a variety of roots and traditions and focuses on the nurturing of the collective capacity to lead through everyday interactions.…

This paper provides a thematic analysis of research papers published in Action Learning: Research and Practice over the past 20 years. The analysis concentrates on the different contexts in which action learning has taken place and on the variations of action learning that have been presented in different papers. Contexts discussed in this paper…

In this paper, I discuss participatory action research (PAR) as a way to support social and political engagement and develop civil society. After a short overview of my personal journey to participatory action research, I describe a general structure that I have developed for organizing PAR projects and a short introduction to the state of civil…

This paper examines a Revans led action learning / action research project in services for people with learning disabilities which took place between 1969 and 1972 across seven local authorities in the UK. It explores aspects of social and political history as the project unfolded, including the notable scandals in hospital and social care which…

Action learning within community-based research is a powerful capacitator of social action. Here, we consider three aspects of action learning that are vital to enable this: (i) developing self-directed and lifelong action learning; (ii) generating local and theoretical knowledge through action research and reflection on learning; and (iii)…

In 2015, the United Nations' (UN's) Sustainable Development Summit adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to transform the world by 2030 through solving urgent social issues, including: poverty, hunger, health and well-being, gender equality, and climate action. We used the UN's SDGs as an analytical framework to review the literature on…

This paper provides a review of the use of action learning in healthcare organisations, or by healthcare professionals, in the past decade, as evidenced in peer-reviewed journals. Action learning has a long history in healthcare and is perhaps particularly suited to an environment where wicked problems abound, where professional development is…

This paper focuses on a two-year program with a Norwegian public sector project-based construction company, where action learning groups and critical incident technique were combined to enhance organizational learning. Project-based organizations typically face difficulties of 'project amnesia', as they fail to integrate learning from experience…

While on my own journey of personal development in action learning facilitation, I conducted a research project in response to the question: How do facilitators most effectively support Critical Action Learning (CAL)? From selecting the topic and establishing the methodology, through to collecting data and analysing the results, this account…

Schools in poor working class communities in South Africa face a myriad of equity challenges that impact negatively on their ability to achieve basic school functionality. Yet, within such communities, there exists a wealth of valuable local knowledge and support that can be mobilised to assist school leaders, not only to bring about school…

Police forces in England and Wales have faced ongoing difficulties of engagement with minority communities leading to a loss of confidence and trust in policing. The paper reports on the results of a project to improve relations with communities with Humberside Police, UK by implementing key ideas relating to procedural justice that consider how…

This year marks the 25th anniversary since action learning (AL) was first introduced in 1993 in South Korea. Although AL has greatly contributed to meeting organizational needs so that it would result in its strong presence as an organizational learning tool, there is no single review study on the development of AL practice in Korea. The purpose…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role played by action learning in a collaborative action research project to alleviate poverty in a city region in the UK. Researchers from two universities worked with 12 large anchor organisations to investigate procurement and employment practices that positively impacted inclusive growth within the…

Action research is conceived as a feet-on-the-ground process--a way of addressing and improving the everyday experiences and concerns of people who deliver real goods and services in an organisation, through the process of finding out new things--i.e. research in the broadest sense. This article explores the question of how action researchers do…