Epistemology

Epistemology is concerned with studying the nature, limitations and justification of human knowledge. Epistemological questions focus on issues such as what is knowledge, what the relationship is between the knower and the known and how knowledge claims are justified. For example, is it possible to obtain objective knowledge about the world? Is human knowledge a social construction or even an illusion? Does a knower actively create knowledge, or is knowledge something discovered by a disinterested observer? Epistemological considerations underlie assumptions about how to conduct research, the appropriateness of methodological choices and the kind of knowledge sought through investigation. Action researchers, in an effort to articulate, and to some extent justify, their own practices to a wider community of scholars, have contributed to these ongoing discussions. Broadly speaking, action researchers have called for a practical form of knowing generated through participative, collaborative interaction that is simultaneously context specific and value driven.

To understand the epistemological positions taken by action researchers, it is beneficial to place such questions within a historical context. Many epistemological problems stem from the distance one assumes between a subject and object or a knower and the known. For example, a central issue in epistemology is how a knower can come to have knowledge of an external world. This duality between the subject and the object has framed the different epistemological positions taken towards social research. However, various vantage points have challenged a strong subject/object division. Action researchers have joined this reappraisal in an effort to formulate their own epistemological perspective. The first section of this entry provides a brief overview of three epistemological positions: objectivism, constructionism and subjectivism. This is [Page 303]followed by placing the subject/object duality within a historical context. This background serves to contextualize the response of action researchers who have rejected such dualities in an effort to develop useful knowledge that facilitates human flourishing. The final section addresses the justification of knowledge within action research or validity concerns.