Action Research

prepared by Jane M. Gangi, Ph.D.February 17, 2011

Definition

Kemmis and McTaggart: “A form of collective, self-reflective inquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own social or educational practices, as well as their understanding of these practices and the situations in which these practices are carried out. Groups of participants can be teachers, students, principals, parents and other community members, -- any group with a shared concern. The approach is only action research when it is collaborative, although it is important to realise that the action research of the group is achieved through the critically examined action of individual group members” (as cited in Smith, 2007, p. 5)

Purpose and Characteristics of Action Research

• To solve real-world problems• Observing classrooms and student behavior• Allows for change during the trial period

—”control” less important than being responsive to the situation

• Allows for experimentation and innovation

Action Research and the Reflective Practitioner

Pownes: "We need most to teach students how to make decisions under conditions of uncertainty, but this is just what we don't know how to teach” (as cited in Schon, 1987, p. 11)

Participatory Action Research

Veale (2005):“…the generation of knowledge (rather than its ‘extraction’) through a merging of academic with local knowledge to provide oppressed people with tools for analysing their life condition. The research process should be experienced as transformative, based on principles of social justice, non-hierarchical relationships and reciprocal learning between participants and researchers…” (p. 253).

Handout

Mary Ellen Levin on Action Research.

ReferencesKemmis, S., & McTaggart, R. (2000). Participatory action research. In N. K. Denzin, & Y. Lincoln, Y. (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 567-605). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Schon, D. A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner: Toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Smith, M. K. (1996; 2001, 2007) 'Action research', the encyclopedia of informal education, www.infed.org/research/b-actres.htm.

Veale, A. (2005). Creative methodologies in participatory research with children. In S. Greene & D. Hogan (Eds.), Researching children’s experiences: Approaches and methods (pp. 253-272). London, U.K.: Sage.

ResourcesAbbot, Andrew. The future of knowing. Retrieved from http://home.uchicago.edu/~aabbott/Papers/futurek.pdf

Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Creswell, J. W. (2008). Chapter 18, Action research designs. Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Kemmis, S., & Wilkinson, M. (1998). Participatory action research and the study of practice. In B. Atweh, S. Kemmis, & P. Weeks (Eds.), Action research in practice: Partnerships for social justice in education (pp. 21-36). New York, NY: Routledge.