Action research in the relationship between theory and practice: practicing theory or theorising practice

Abstract

The contribution seeks to shed light on how action research scientifically illuminates educational practices, which must be considered within a conceptual framework put in place by the teacher to succeed in realizing an action system capable of revealing and supporting a precise demand of training. From this point of view, theory becomes a means not only for guiding and comparing the questions that emerge in teaching and which need an adequate solution, just as the researcher does when trying to solve the problems that concern his studies, but needs a dialectical relationship with the practice to be reviewed and rethought through the intermediation of critical reflection. To this end, the latter, using a precise model of interpretation, recalls a set of principles to explain facts or phenomena, especially those that have been validated and which see wide acceptance by the community, to foresee, clarify, create or to innovate a certain educational domain and, at the same time, to innovate.