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Abstract: This article presents a brief history of the action research, starting with Kurt Lewin's contribution (1946). Right from the start, the action research was conceived as a methodological alternative to the mainstream science, but it is still little used, including in Romania.
Keywords: action research, methodology, positivism.
1. KURT LEWIN'S CONTRIBUTION
the action research began to assert a distinct type of research in the social and human sciences after 1946, following Kurt Lewin's publication of his article: Action research and minority problems. the American (of German origin) psycho-sociologist Kurt Lewin is considered the "father" of the action research (especially since he is considered to have created the term, although John Collier used it in the same way a year before Lewin) and the delimitation of the specificity of this type of research is one of his major contributions to the development of psycho-sociology. Also, Jacob Levi Moreno's contribution to structure this type of research is noticed in most works devoted to the history of the action research.
A number of authors (Kock et.al., 1997; Baskerville, 1999 etc.) show that in parallel with Kurt Lewin's work at the University of Michigan,Research Center for Group Dynamics, similar research was developed (independently) at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in London on disorders being suffering from by the soldiers who fought in the Second World War. Also, James McKernan (1991, 8-9) identifies a number of similar research (Collier, 1945, Lippitt and Radke, 1946) immediately after the period when research was carried out by Lewin or by the Group from Tavistock and links the emergence of the new type of research to the "Science in education" movement, active in the United States during the period between the XIX and XX centuries, as well as to a series of re-conceptualization of education within the same cultural space, especially those of John Dewey (e.g. description of problem solving). Kurt Lewin's contribution is regarded as fundamental as he is the first author who conducted a systematic methodological reflection on the specificity and way of realization of the action research.
the idea of action research was based in the 40's by Kurt Lewin, in an attempt to connect social theory and practice. Lewin considered at the time that there was...