What I Learned About Action Research...

Hello Fellow Bloggers!

This experience is definitely a new one for me, but I am excited to try it out! I decided to refer to this blog as 'acting in research' because it seemed to be what the term action research was telling me. It is no longer just boring research that we learned how to study and learn from in college, it is our own means of learning by using our own experiences and training, therefore 'acting' for our own best interest and for the things we feel are important to us and the context we are using it for. Action research allows teachers and principals to become the initiating and driving force behind the movement to make change, rather than just blindly following the advice of outside experts as to what they believe would be conducive to an educational environment. Traditional educational research has not included the voices of people working within the schools, these would be the people who best understand the school environment, and therefore would make change conducive to the educational experiences for all members of the schoolhouse (Dana, 2009, p.5). Action research gives the stakeholders the ability to take an active role in all processes of the inquiry process, whereas traditional methods had them hiding behind the notion that what the 'experts' say must be true, making the changes less meaningful to the context. Leaders are faced with a multitude of tasks to complete within specified time constraints and need a way to systematically organize their thoughts and actions to complete the tasks they are assigned and expected to accomplish. Action research gives the leader an excuse to slow down the harried daily pace and organize their tasks into smaller more manageable chunks. Then, in collaboration with others, they are able to arrive at the best possible course of action to take in each situation. The repeated use of action research gives the leader the ability to learn from their experiences, and acquire new skills (Martin et al. , 2005, p.105). The idea of being able to collaborate with others really makes me excited to use this process in the future. I have had the opportunity to use and see some of this process during my years of teaching, but I believe carrying it out when I am in a leadership position will be a much better learning opportunity and I will be better equipped through my past and future experiences to bond with my colleagues and make the appropriate decisions for my school community. I will take the time in the coming year to experiment with action research now that I have been given the opportunity to learn more about it.

References

Dana, N.F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin A SAGE Company.

Martin, G.E. et al. (2005). School leader internship: developing, monitoring, and evaluating your leadership experience. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education, Inc.