Focus the Study and Set the Stage:
1. Select a specific topic
2. Narrow the topic
3. Develop a research question
4. Identify the purpose of the study
5. Identify problems surrounding the study
6. Describe the context of the study
7. Identify central issues and subtopics
Summarized from Alber, Sandra M.. A Toolkit for Action Research. Lanham, US: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2010. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 13 May 2016.
Purpose of the literature review:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the field
2. Inform and shape the research project
3. Prepare future readers of the study to understand the context of the project
May include:
- Rationale or why the study is important
- Historical perspectives and seminal research
- Key concepts
- Current research
- Theoretical perspectives
- Key debates
- Human development
Summarized from Alber, Sandra M.. A Toolkit for Action Research. Lanham, US: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2010. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 13 May 2016.
Networks
An online journal of teacher research.
Research for Action
A nonprofit education research organization.
Voices of Practitioners
Features articles authored by teachers describing their systematic studies of their own practice.
Student Voice, Teacher Action Research and Classroom Improvement
The issue of teacher quality is increasingly seen as being central to education policy development and this emphasis highlights the role teacher professional development plays in improving teacher effectiveness and the quality of learning in the classroom.This book describes a large-scale research program which investigated the feasibility of using student perceptual measures as the basis for teacher development and classroom improvement. The book describes how teachers' use of the student feedback, as part of an action-research process, was used to guide improvements to their respective classrooms which in turn provided them with increased opportunities for teacher development and growth. In addition to this, it reports the efforts of one school which purposefully linked the involvement of their teachers to their school improvement initiatives. This book would be of interest to a range of audiences including researchers, teachers and school leaders. Its attractions include its far-reaching implications for educational systems concerning the ways in which student feedback can be used to facilitate teacher development and growth. The book also reports the use of a multi-method research design in which quantitative and qualitative methods were successfully employed simultaneously within two concurrent and interrelated investigations.
Promoting Change Through Action Research
"Bringing a different world into existence - Action Research as a trigger for innovations" was the overarching theme and vision of the international CARN Conference 2011 in Vienna. The chapters in this book are drawn mainly from conference contributions. The authors share practical knowledge which has arisen from their work, and reflect on development processes in schools, in teacher education and professional development, social work, social peda¬gogy, health care and community development. This book offers what some critics believe has been missing in recent action research literature, namely first person accounts of action researchers who endeavour to change working conditions and social relations in their environment through the conduct of action research. This book is also distinguished by assembling contributions from people who are linking action research to a broad diversity of differing contexts, and who are exploring topics or issues across various applications of action research.
The Action Research Planner
A fully-updated and reworked version of the classic book by Stephen Kemmis and Robin McTaggart, now joined by Rhonda Nixon, The Action Research Planner is a detailed guide to developing and conducting a critical participatory action research project. The authors outline new views on 'participation' (based on Jürgen Habermas's notion of a 'public sphere'), 'practice' (as shaped by practice architectures), and 'research' (as research within practice traditions). They provide five extended examples of critical participatory action research studies. The book includes a range of resources for people planning a critical participatory research initiative, providing guidance on how to establish an action research group and identify a shared concern, research ethics, principles of procedure for action researchers, protocols for collaborative work, keeping a journal, gathering evidence, reporting, and choosing academic partners. Unlike earlier editions, The Action Research Planner focuses specifically on critical participatory action research, which occupies a particular (critical) niche in the action research 'family'. The Action Research Planner is an essential guide to planning and undertaking this type of research.
