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 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 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 article explores how P (programmed learning) in Revans' formula L=P + Q accumulates from one action learning research initiative to another. Drawing on three inter-organizational action learning research initiatives, it shows how the L (learning) from conducting action learning in an initiative in one network built new P on network action…

The case for the notion of action learning research has been posed and explored in several publications over the past few years. There is no tradition within action learning of understanding it as an approach to research. Within some academic circles, there has been a focus on the "action turn," the development of the notion of actionable…

This account explores the role of action learning during and after an educational programme. We focus on the final stage of a master's programme and the insider research that is a key feature in many UK universities. Researching within one's own organization should lead to individual and organizational learning. However, there is relatively little…

This paper considers the shared characteristics between action learning (AL) and the research methodology constructivist grounded theory (CGT). Mirroring Edmonstone's [2011. "Action Learning and Organisation Development: Overlapping Fields of Practice." "Action Learning: Research and Practice" 8 (2): 93-102] article, which…

This paper presents the proposition that a variety of differing hierarchies exist in an action learning set at any one time, and each hierarchy has the potential to affect an individual's behaviour within the set. An interpretivist philosophy underpins the research framework adopted in this paper. Data were captured by means of 11 in-depth…