Action research a Handbook for Students

participate in producing knowledge.
Another classic example of participatory research, this time with a strong 
emancipatory purpose, was action research conducted by American pedagogue 
Myles Horton, initiator and co-founder of Highlander Research and Education 
Center [aka Highlander Folk School] in 1932. The organisation operated in Ten-
nessee and dealt with education for social justice, training future leaders of social 
movements and empowering people to fight for their rights [Horton 1990].

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In his approach, Horton was driven by the idea of democratization. He 
involved oppressed people (e.g. unfairly exploited farmers) in educational pro-
cesses, giving them the freedom to express their opinions, and above all, the op-
portunity to reach conclusions and make decisions on their own [Horton, Freire 
1990]. He fought against racial segregation, allowing people of different skin 
colours to learn all together, which at the time was a criminal offence.
The researcher taught poor, exploited, uneducated people to have faith in 
their strengths and abilities. He showed them they could trust their experiences 
and rely on their competences. Participants learned openness to helping others, 
as well as courage in taking responsibility for their own and other people’s lives 
through participatory decision-making. Horton tried not to impose his own 
views. In one of the projects with a group of striking employees, one of them put 
a gun to Horton’s head, asking what they should do next. But Horton, guided 
by the idea of democratic, participatory decision-making, decided to stay silent 
[Moyers, Horton 1982]. The Highlander Research and Education Center op-
erates to this day, actively working for the residents of Appalachia, empowering 
them to fight for their rights and better quality of life.
Looking at more recent examples of emancipatory action research, we 
should point out a particularly interesting project of Elżbieta Wołodźko [2013] 
carried out in the Teachers College in Szczytno, Poland. The subject of the pro-
ject which lasted three years was the autonomy of students tangled up in instru-
mental, neoliberal reforms of a contemporary university in Poland. Neoliberal 
solutions treat education as a commodity necessary for the development of pro-
fessional careers, students as customers, and teachers as cashiers providing satis-
factory services [Izak et al., 2017]. The corporatization of higher education leads 
to an illusion of teaching in which students become manipulative consumers 
with university diplomas.
The objective of Wołodźko’s action research was therefore raising students’ 
and teachers’ critical awareness, and providing them with conditions for fighting 
for their autonomy in educational and social processes. The aim of this process 
includes first and foremost enabling students to adopt civic attitudes in socie-
ty, related to the ability to care for other people and the ability to oppose the 
ideas of consumerism, neoliberalism, or economism which are devastating for 
humanity.
Using a broad range of qualitative methods, such as observation, in-depth 
interviews, educational games, or problematising group work, and by creating 
space for critical reflection during classes, including the permission to disagree 
with the teacher, the researcher managed to elicit a high level of self-reflec-
tion among the participants and the sense of independence from instrumental, 

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dehumanizing ideologies. Students and professors alike became more conscious 
of their responsibility for teaching and learning processes, as well as for other 
people’s dignity and autonomy [Wołodźko 2013].
3.4 Criticism of the emancipatory approach to action research.