Casey Mary, Coghlan David, Carroll Áine, Stokes Diarmuid
UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery & Health Systems, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland.
Trinity Business School, University of Dublin, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Int J Nurs Stud Adv. 2025 May 28;8:100357. doi: 10.1016/j.ijnsa.2025.100357. eCollection 2025 Jun.
Action research is about action and research: both practice and theory. Theory development takes place throughout action research as the co-researchers strive to create meaning from their experiences of the change while the change is still occurring. Developing theory in action research may manifest in the creation of academic and practical knowledge. Failure to demonstrate the quality of action research reduces both its scientific value and practical application and so theory generation and development during the action research project maybe limited. Ensuring rigor in action research requires that the researcher is clear about the nature of the action or intervention, the ways in which data are collected and analysed and the processes through which the resulting theory is developed. Therefore, the activities and processes involved in using and generating theory in action research must be clearly reported through manifestation of the quality of the research. This paper explores how a Quality Action Research Checklist (QuARC) tool provides a path to how 'good theory' may be generated through action research. It provides some background to the elements chosen for the QuARC and discusses key aspects established in the literature on the role of theory in action research. A second aim is to discuss the four areas in the QuARC tool and explore what action research projects should aspire to under these headings, and particularly how theory development may relate to these headings.
包括实践与理论。在行动研究过程中，随着共同研究者努力从变革进行时的经历中创造意义，理论得以发展。行动研究中的理论发展可能体现在学术知识和实践知识的创造上。未能证明行动研究的质量会降低其科学价值和实际应用价值，因此行动研究项目中的理论生成与发展可能会受到限制。确保行动研究的严谨性要求研究者明确行动或干预的性质、数据收集与分析的方式以及所得理论的发展过程。因此，必须通过研究质量的呈现清晰报告行动研究中使用和生成理论所涉及的活动及过程。本文探讨了质量行动研究清单（QuARC）工具如何为通过行动研究生成“好的理论”提供一条途径。它介绍了为QuARC所选要素的一些背景，并讨论了文献中关于理论在行动研究中的作用所确立的关键方面。第二个目的是讨论QuARC工具中的四个领域，并探讨行动研究项目在这些标题下应追求的目标，特别是理论发展与这些标题的关系。
