There is a tradition of knowledge production connected to schools and social justice, for more than a half century, that has been in place in schooling around the globe--action research. While action research is not a singular methodology, many of the most influential developers of this approach have suggested a link with social justice. Inherent in this approach is a value and respect for those who have traditionally been left out of the knowledge production process. Action research suggests that schooling already has done some of the foundational work necessary to address the global economic crisis. With all this promise, action research as is true of so many methodologies, is tied and seduced by a set of traditions largely unseen which make the knowledge produced reflective of the past as opposed to the possibilities of an unknown innovative future. What is needed is new forms of knowledge production that are freed to better serve the purpose of social justice (more equitable relations in a general sense) and to do so through policies that escape the limits of the same old tired approaches that have dominated the political landscape of the United States and for the most part have increased the gap between rich and poor. This essay considers a few foundational traditions that inform some of the major developers of the action research methodologies. The author identifies these traditional constructs, and illuminates the work of Joan Miro as an exemplar of a segment of the art community, that the author refers to as the experimentalist artists. It provides a contrast with the traditions of action research which the author argues belongs to a genre of methodologies he terms subjective science. The essay concludes with a turning point that looks at how subjective science and this alternative experimental art approach might be used so that action research can reinvent itself to more strongly embrace an ethic of social justice, broadly defined, in schools and do so in innovative ways. (Contains 5 footnotes.)