Action Research (AR) originated from the work of Kurt Lewin during the 1940s and has been summarised as an approach that “combines theory and practice (and researchers and practitioners) through change and reflection in an immediate problematic situation within a mutually acceptable ethical framework” (Avison et al., 1999 p 94). The application of AR has not been without controversy particularly in debates with positivist science on the justification and generation of knowledge. These arguments were addressed by Susman & Evered (1978) in their influential description of AR as consisting of a cyclical process involving five phases: diagnosing, action planning, action taking, evaluating, and specifying learning. The focus of AR is to address real-life problems through intervention together with the research objective of making a contribution to knowledge. Coghlan and Brannick (2005 p 125) emphasise the importance of the social and academic context in which action research is carried out.