Lincoln Education Action Research Network (LEARN)

Epistemology is a philosophical term which refers to the study of how we know things, and especially of the criteria and forms of judgment we use to argue that our beliefs are justified. In other words, how do we know what we know, and how do we know that the methods we use for finding out are appropriate and defensible? Or, in the words of McDonagh et al., ‘how I see knowledge, how it is generated, what counts as knowledge, and who decides’ (2012, p. 67).

Reflecting on our epistemological positions as teachers and researchers is important because we want to know and act with confidence, to have the capacity to evaluate the status of other people’s arguments, and to critically evaluate others’ interpretations of our own claims. It is important because we need to choose appropriate methodological tools and theoretical frameworks for our work. It is important because ‘action research’ is part of a broader tradition of practice-oriented or praxis research that shares some things in common with, and differs considerably in some ways from, traditional forms of social research.

See also: For an in-depth paper on the value of action research and its relationship to other kinds of research in epistemological terms, see here. For a short essay exploring the ‘epistemological status’ of knowledge produced through action research, see here.