Action Research is much lauded as a form of enquiry well suited to practitioners exploring research questions in their own practice context, and is one of the strategies proving very popular with students on the masters programmes in Career Studies and Coaching. But beneath the beguiling ‘collision of terms’ of research and action are some important tensions and complexities. In this seminar Gill will present some of the key features of action research and share experiences of both supervising students undertaking action research based dissertations and of doing action research for her own doctoral study. The seminar aims to explore the potential of action research as well as mapping out some of the challenges it can present.