Our Purpose
Our corporate Objective, enshrined in our Constitution is:
"To promote by all available means the study, practice, research and teaching of Action Learning and Action Research in all their forms, and to bring together people who are interested in or involved with Action Learning and Action Research."
This Objective guides our vision and action. Action Learning, Action Research Association Ltd (ALAR Association, also known as ALARA) seeks .....
1. To serve our members' action research and action learning practices, communities and fields of action
Our members are action researchers and action learners working at multiple scales and in multiple modes: one on one mentoring, collaboration building, program and project delivery, and whole system transformation. Some of us make AR and AL our core business, while some make it a means to another end (social justice, environmental restoration, participatory journalism for example). ALAR Association serves members in both their "core" and "means" approaches.
This means that we are not limited to any one discipline or field: we are multi- and trans-disciplinary! Our membership is diverse and culturally rich; we embrace our differences joyfully and learn with and from each other. Our diversity makes our organisational community stronger.
ALAR Association provides a community of peers for companionship in our work; opportunities to reflect on and innovate practice face-to-face and virtually; access to information, training and learning about AR and AL; access to local, national and global events hosted by ALAR Association and our many aligned organisations; access to networks, news, and a variety of publication opportunities to all our members. We also extend our connections into aligned fields such as systems thinking, collaborative inquiry and continuous improvement.
We also see ALAR Association as an organism of participatory governance, embodying the array of values and practices that make our field distinctive. We facilitate member participation in as many aspects of organisational governance and operations as possible because we see these internal activities as expressions of our AR and AL practices.
2. To build our organisation so it may promote AR and AL in multiple fields beyond our organisation
At ALAR Association we believe that more than ever AR and AL are essential capabilities to meet the very considerable challenges of our 21st century world. Locally and globally, our practitioners address the "wicked problems". Whether we are working in public and corporate governance arenas, community development, social learning and/or advocacy and activism organisations, AR and AL approaches bring qualities that are unique to our field and essential to outcome resilience. ALAR Association serves its members to serve their fields beyond ALAR Association's boundaries.
Being an Action Researcher and/or and Action Learner is not an easy road. While the methodologies have arguably been mainstream since the late 1940's, AR and AL continue to demand constant advocacy and vigilance to keep them secure in corporate and academic institutions and rigorous within our own practices.
3. To create the resources to actively co-operate with the global network of Action Learning and Action Research
ALAR Association is one of many Action Research and Action Learning networks, schools, centres and associations around the world, and there are many concerns-based organisations that use AR and AL as their primary mode of operation.
We share common approaches to how we support our members - visiting each others' conferences, contributing to each others' journals and staying in touch. However, we also believe that the global field of AL and AR is under-developed and one way to overcome this is to be more co-operative with other networks. To do this we need to offer complimentary services to diversify and strengthen our global field, and we need to be actively reciprocal - co-learning and co-facilitating other networks' well being through recognition, co-operation and inclusion.