Pedagogy as Human Science, Bildung and Action Research: Swedish and Dutch Reflections

Source: Educational Action Research, Volume 17, Issue 1 (March 2009), pages 155 - 167.

Action research can be understood as a complex interplay between local circumstances and local research traditions, embedded in their turn in local intellectual-philosophical traditions, national as well as international. Because of this interplay it is questionable whether it would be particularly fruitful to look for 'typical local forms of action research'. In this paper, the authors will reflect on this issue, and they base their reflections on the Nordic tradition of bildung (bildning) and the continental European tradition of pedagogy as human science.
As a departure for the reflections, illustrations will be used of what is actually happening with regard to action research in the authors' own countries of the Netherlands and Sweden.