Abstract
In the paper I intend to share my practical knowledge acquired from my experience in doing action/narrative inquiry during the past twenty years. In the paper I employed the term action research combined with the term narrative inquiry, as the researcher was the same person whose status varied depending upon his/her position at different stages of the inquiry process. The researcher is conducting action research if s/he is aiming at the present toward the future. On the other hand, the inquirer is doing narrative inquiry if s/he focuses upon the past in relation to the present. I argued that there were substantial differences between subject-object knowledge and I-Thou knowledge. Then I discussed systematically the process of inquiry under the I-Thou knowledge paradigm from the end of research, the researcher's inner attitude towards seeing and hearing, to the state of being while analyzing data. I cited extensively Levinas's concept of face-to-face relationship as a basis for building the knowledge theory for action/narrative inquiry. I contended that love had to be the essential element in human research and should not have been ignored by the research community. I claimed that action/narrative inquiry was based on a different knowledge foundation from that specific scientific approaches were based upon. This fact is reflected systematically in every aspect of the research process. It is important to clarify that the characteristics and the significances of such a distinction between the I-It knowledge theory and the I-Thou knowledge theory that the action/narrative researcher is grounded upon should be considered as a legitimate knowledge basis.