The process choices made in action research can determine how emancipatory an experience it is for participants. Some choices promote an experience of emancipation. Other choices can reduce it. There can be tensions between choices that encourage emancipation and those that pursue other advantages at the expense of emancipation. Here we consider six such tensions.For each choice we suggest how to frame the tension to deliver an experience of emancipation. The suggestions involve practitioners and participants choosing the driving force for the work, acquiring and applying skills for empowerment, mixing action and research to suit the context, choosing an appropriate simplicity of methodology, planning participation, and engaging with the different beliefs of practitioners and participants. We use practitioner and researcher interchangeably.

This article examines the evolution of decision making from a position of minor significance to one of primary importance in vocational theory.