I have a first degree in Politics and I am just completing a Masters in Education. I recently submitted a draft proposal for a PhD project to the university I did my first degree at which concerns itself with the devolution of power to the neighbourhood level and how keen residents in England are about this idea. I've had a meeting with two staff who liked the general subject and agreed it was one that needed further research but they didn't like one part of it which was action research to test out some of the research in the field and then reflect on this. They said it was 'unacacademic' because it would reduce the objectivity of my study as I would become a part of it. Personally I thought objectivity was impossible because even interviewing people as part of research makes you effectively a part of that study.

I have worked in the education sector for the past 5 years and action research is an accepted practice in terms of the improvement of teaching practice. Indeed, I thought this was also the case for other occupations such as youth work, social work and the medical professions. The option has been there to use action research as a method for my masters dissertation but that is with a different educational institution. I am wondering if it might be something that education studies accepts but other subjects like politics have an issue with.

Has anybody else had similar views about action research put to them or do they know of cases of it being accepted for a PhD?

In the social sciences participatory research, that can include action research, is a valid design to use, especially if your doing community focused research. In terms of doing a PhD with action research, in principle I cannot see the problem. infact the professor who supervised my PhD had previously supervised an action research based PhD. Although he did say the key to success was that the action research led to a clear and validatable change in practice in the organisation/community in which the research took place, as I could not achieve that I moved to a case study. if you keenly interested in action research I would push ahead with your PhD and identify a potential supervisor who understands the methodology.