A naive philosophy of action research

One of the resources for my current education studies is "A naive philosophy of action research" (Bob Dick, 2000).

The document appears to be a set of  notes for a program on "areol" (action research and evaluation on line) previously offered by Southern Cross University. Unfortunately the document assumes that the reader is familiar with the AREOL program, referring to the "number of sessions" provided before going in to discuss quantitative research and positivist philosophy

The document has a section headed "Systems thinking". Unfortunately the phrase is not mentioned again (apart from a circular reference in a footnote) so it is not clear what the author intended. The discussion of causality and research is superficial, appearing almost a parody of a philosophical discussion.

Flint explored the topic of systems thinking in a systematic way in his thesis (2006) and in a more approachable summary (2008).

References:

Flint, S. (2006). ANU-Digital Collections: Aspect-Oriented Thinking-An approach to bridging the disciplinary divides. (PHD), The Australian National University, Canberra. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1885/49328

Flint, S 2008, 'Rethinking Systems Thinking', in David Cook (ed.), Proceedings of the 14th ANZSYS Australia New Zealand Systems Society Conference, Edith Cowan University, Perth, pp. 7 pages. Retrienved from http://www.anzsys.org/anzsys08/papers/Shayne%20Flint%20Rethinking%20Systems%20Thinking.pdf