Transforming higher education: Action research, learning and community politics

This article examines the interrelationships of global developments and local responses in South African higher education. Patterns in the sector's transformation, such as the growing influence of marketization, have been recorded in countries around the world. Against this background, the roles of action research, action learning and community participation, are discussed. I view action research and learning as tools to analyze the new roles universities are playing in relation to the state and the societies they are supposed to serve. This integrated conceptual framework needs to be extended to include the politics of community development, i.e. local participation in education reform in relation to national development and history. It would challenge conventional research and bridge the divide between universities and the communities in which they are located.