Key Journal Article

Kurt Lewin's Action Research and Minority Problems

In 1946, Lewin wrote the article Action Research and Minority Problems as part of an endeavour to improve intergroup relations in several American communities.  Having been born and raised Jewish in the time of Nazi Germany, Lewin was especially sensitive to the problems of minorities when he later moved to the United States (Bargal, 2006).

In brief, Lewin was called upon to assist practitioners in assessing the outcomes of their interventions among minority groups. Lewin (1946) explained,  "I have had the occasion to have contact with a great variety of organizations, institutions and individuals...Two basic facts emerged from these contacts: there exists a great deal of good-will, of readiness to face the problem squarely and really do something about it...(and) these eager people feel to be in a fog.  They feel in the fog on three counts: 1. What is the present situation? 2. What are the dangers? 3. And most important of all, what shall we do?" (p. 201).

It is this work that allows Lewin to be generally credited as the person who coined the term 'action research' (Smith, 2001).  Lewin (1946) observed, "the research needed for social practice... is a type of action research, comparative research on the conditions and efforts of various forms of social action, and research leading to social action.  Research that provides nothing but books will not suffice.  This by no means implies that the research needed is in any respect less scientific or 'lower' than what would be required for pure science in the field of social events" (pp.202-203).

This action research, which Lewin felt necessary, was explained as follows. "It proceeds in a spiral of steps, each of which is composed of a circle of planning, action and fact finding about the results of the action" (Lewin, 1946, p. 206).

"Lewin's ideas inspired many scholars in the domains of social and organizational psychology, as well as outside of those fields" (Bargal, 2006, p. 369). "By conceiving and proposing the paradigm of action research as he published it in 1946, Lewin defied the academic establishment of psychology in a way, and perhaps even challenged the social science establishment as well.  He deviated from the common methodological norm, which focused on the positivist paradigm and enabled ivory tower scholars to 'intrude' in the realm of practitioners.  By introducing action research as a methodology, Lewin essentially obliterated the boundary that existed between research and practice, and highlighted their interdependence" (Bargal, 2006, p. 383).

More recently, Smith (2007) has commented on Lewin's historical work and offers a caution.

"One of the legacies Kurt Lewin left us is the ‘action research spiral’ – and with it there is the danger that action research becomes little more than a procedure. It is a mistake, according to McTaggart (1996: 248) to think that following the action research spiral constitutes ‘doing action research’. He continues, ‘Action research is not a ‘method’ or a ‘procedure’ for research but a series of commitments to observe and problematize through practice a series of principles for conducting social enquiry’. It is his argument that Lewin has been misunderstood or, rather, misused. When set in historical context, while Lewin does talk about action research as a method, he is stressing a contrast between this form of interpretative practice and more traditional empirical-analytic research. The notion of a spiral may be a useful teaching device – but it is all too easily to slip into using it as the template for practice" (McTaggart 1996: 249 as cited in Smith, 2007).