You can't do it on your own: gardening as an analogy for personal learning from a collaborative action research group

Abstract

This article explores the factors that contributed to personal learning and development as a result of being a member of a collaborative action research project group. The project took place in a university School of Education, and involved five lecturers and the students they were supervising for their dissertations. Data were collected by interviews with lecturers and students, regular meetings and other activities, all of which were facilitated by a research assistant. Gardening is used as an analogy to action research with similarities between the two activities being made. Two interlinked factors are identified as being crucial for the learning that took place – time (in terms of making time for the research and realising that development is not always instant) and support from others (both within the action research group and the wider research community). These factors, together with some lessons drawn from this collaboration (which may be useful for others engaging in this type of activity) have led to the realisation that ‘you can’t do it on your own'.