The case for the notion of action learning research has been posed and explored in several publications over the past few years. There is no tradition within action learning of understanding it as an approach to research. Within some academic circles, there has been a focus on the "action turn," the development of the notion of actionable knowledge, the epistemology of practice and the research potential of action modalities. Over the past few months, a series of e-mail exchanges between some members of the editorial team of this journal on whether there is any such things as action learning research and how might it be different from action research took place. Out of those exchanges, a colloquium was held to explore the topic at the Third International Conference on Action Learning held in Ashridge in March 2012. Speakers at the colloquium were: (1) David Coghlan; (2) Joe Raelin; (3) Clare Rigg; (4) Jeff Gold; (5) Mike Pedler; (6) Aileen Lawless; and (7) Elaine Allison. In this article, the author provides a flavour of the questions posed so as to encourage a continuing discussion and exploration.