The production of knowledge in the pedagogical action research (PAR): appraisal of an experiment

Abstract

This article brings together the lessons learned from a second experiment with a methodology of cooperative work designed to implement a modality of pedagogical action research (PAR). The author maintains that the governing principle of any modality of PAR is the principle of reflectivity, and that the horizon of any of these modalities is to generate conditions of possibility for the reflection. The text highlights four of these conditions: i) the intensive exercise of the objectivation of the discourse through writing practices; ii) the intensive exercise of the objectivation of pedagogical practice through practices of self-observation with the aid of audio and video; iii) the intensive exercise of group work with well-defined individual responsibilities; iv) the intensive exercise of argumentation and critical dialogue between peers, always mediated by written texts. The ability of this tool to objectify the subject of the pedago-gical practice within a context of critical dialogue and shared responsibility creates the conditions for the teachers' individual subjectivities to feel included in a collective subjectivity, which is ultimately responsible for the construction of meaning. By moving from an individual pedagogical practice to a collective pedagogical practice, and from an individual style of reflection to a collective style of reflection about the practice, the definition of meaning becomes a responsibility of the collective. In other words: a subject of public interest.