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Welcome to the home of ALARA - the Action Learning, Action Research Association.

ALARA is a strategic network of people interested in using action research and action learning to generate collaborative learning, research and action to transform workplaces, schools, colleges, universities, communities, voluntary organisations, governments and businesses.

ALARA's vision is that action research and action learning will be widely used and publicly shared by individuals and groups creating local and global change for the achievement of a more equitable, just, joyful, productive, peaceful and sustainable society.

ALARA is one of the longest-established associations of AL and AR practitioners, growing from an originating base in Queensland Australia where we are incorporated. We host the World Congresses, hold annual Australian National Conferences focusing on action research and action learning developments, publish a journal and a newsletter, and support local network events. Our membership is now drawn from 25 countries.

The 2010 World Congress will be held in Melbourne Australia on 6-9th September 2010, with 2 pre-conference skill-sharing days beforehand. The Conference theme is 'Participatory Action Research and Action Learning: Appreciating our Pasts, Comprehending our Presents, Prefiguring our Futures'. See Third Announcement below, which includes the Call for Abstracts, and the most recent information at World Congress up there on the top navigation bar.

The Registration &  Advance Program will be available any day now - watch this space. Confirmed keynote speakers are: Dr. Alan Rayner, a naturalist who uses art, poetry and a new form of mathematics, as well as rigorous science to enquire and communicate about our natural human neighbourhood; Professor Budd Hall, Director of the Office of Community-Based Research at the University of Victoria in British Columbia Canada, an Elder in the field of action research, having pioneered work in Tanzania in the early 1970s; Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Pro-Vice-Chancellor Māori at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, known internationally for her work on research methodology and Māori and indigenous education; Yoland Wadsworth, involved in PAR since the early 1970s, author of Australia's two best-selling social research and evaluation books based on a PAR approach, and with 38 years with NGOs, government and community organisations, primarily in health and human services.

The Congress will be strong on issue-focused and context-specific discussion and conversation. Streasm include: Ecology, International Development, Health and Wellbeing, Systems / Business / Organisational Development, Education and Learning ,Decolonising praxis.

And coming up 4-6 May, 2010, in Melbourne, a conference on evaluation of behaviour change for sustainability, Show Me the Change. Check it out.