ACTION RESEARCH October 1997

PURPOSE

The purpose of the module is to enable participants to carry out an action enquiry, to understand the fundamental principles of action research and to locate the significance of the approach in institutional, local and national governmental policies.

This module will begin by focussing on the participant's understanding of what constitutes an educational enquiry. This will lead into the design of short action enquiries into areas of the participants' own choosing. These enquiries will be carried out over a four/five week period, using the group as a peer learning set in which issues and problems related to their enquiry will be addressed and discussed in detail. A final draft of the action enquiry report will then form the basis for participants' self and peer assessments.

Participants will give examples of educational enquiries drawn from their professional practice. These will be related to examples in the literature on different approaches to action research. The appropriateness of qualitative and quantitative methods for educational enquiries will be discussed e.g. case study, action enquiry, ethnography, test construction and attitude scale construction. Participants will then begin to formulate their own personal action enquiry to be carried out during the remainder of the term (this may be an individual or group enquiry).

Participants will present a draft of their action enquiry 'design' which will be the focus for discussion. They will then carry out their enquiry over the next four/five weeks, reporting back to the group on issues and problems arising from their enquiry. This will be the focus for group discussion/analysis/reference to literature etc. During this time it is envisaged that we will consider the integration of the methods and conceptual frameworks from the disciplines of education into an educational enquiry e.g. conceptual analysis, theories of learning, the use of autobiography and narrative in the presentation of qualitative research.

Participants will present a final draft of their enquiry report. These will be used to share evidence concerning claims to knowledge which emerge from the enquiries. Questions of validity, justification and rigour will be raised and discussed, as will questions concerning the politics of educational knowledge. The latter will focus on the legitimisation of different conceptions of educational theory from a dialectical perspective. The final draft of the participant's enquiry will form the basis for triangulated self/peer/tutor assessment.

10 X 2 hour sessions of seminars

5000 word assignment involving an evaluative case report on the professional enquiry.

Carr,W. & Kemmis,S.(1986) Becoming Critical. London; Falmer Press.
Denzin, M. & Lincoln, Y. (1994) A Handbook of Qualitative Research. London;Sage.
Eames,K. (1988) Evaluating a teacher research's choice of action research. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education. Vol,13, No.3, pp. 212-218.
Eames, K. (1995) How do I, as a teacher and an educational action-researcher, describe and explain the nature of my professional knowledge? Ph.D. University of Bath. Accessible from the Web at http://www.actionresearch.net
Eisner, E. (1993) Forms of Understanding and the Future of Educational Research. Educational Researcher, Vol. 22, No.7, pp. 5-11.
Eisner, E. (1997) The Promise and Perils of Alternative Forms of Data Representation. Educational Researcher, Vol. 28, No.6, pp. 4-10.
Elliott,J. (1989) The Professional Learning of Teachers. Cambridge Journal of Education, 'New Directions for Educational Theory'. Vol.19, No.1. pp.81-101
Hamilton,D. et al (Eds) (1977) Beyond the Numbers Game. Macmillan.
Hammersley (1979) Analysing Ethnographic Data, Part 1, Block 6, DE304, Research Methods, Open University. See also D'arcy's response to Hammersley in Educational Action Research , Vol. 2, No.2. 1994. pp. 291-293.
Holley, E. (1997) My Living Educational Theory: How do I as a teacher-researcher contribute to the development of living educational theory through an exploration of my values in my professional practice? M.Phil. Thesis, University of Bath. Accessible from the Web at http://www.actionresearch.net
Hollingsworth, S. (Ed.) (1997) International Action Research, London, Washington; Falmer.
Hopkins,D.,(1985) A Teacher's Guide to Action Research. Open University Press.
Kemmis,S. & MacTaggart,R. (1982) The Action Research Planner, Deakin University Press.
Laidlaw, M. (1994) The Democratising Potential of Dialogical Focus in action research enquiries. Educational Action Research, Vol.2, No.2. pp. 223-241
Laidlaw, M. (1996) My Living Educational Theory: How can I create my own living educational theory as I offer you an account of my educational development? Ph.D. Thesis, University of Bath. Accessible from the Web at address http://www.actionresearch.net
Lomax,P. (1989) The Management of Change. Clevedon; Multilingual Matters.
Lomax P. (1994) The Narrative of an Educational Journey: Crossing the Tracks. Kingston University
Lincoln,T.S. & Guba,E.G. (1985) Naturalistic Enquiry, New York;Sage.
McNiff,J. (1992) Action Research Principles and Practice.London; Routledge.
McNiff, J., Lomax, P. & Whitehead, J. (1996) You and Your Action Research Project, London; Routledge.
McKernan, J. (1996) Curriculum Action Research. London; Kogan Page.
OÕ Hanlon. C. (1996) Professional Development through Action Research in Educational Settings. London, Washington; Falmer.
Reason,P. & Rowan,J. (1982) Human Inquiry: A Sourcebook of New Paradigm Research. Chichester, New York;Wiley.
Rowland, S. (1993) The Enquiring Tutor. London;Falmer.
Sherman,R. & Webb,R. (1988) Qualitative Research in Education, Focus and Methods. The Falmer Press.
Shipman,M. (1985) Educational Research: Principles, Policies and Practices, London; Falmer
Supporting Teacher Research Into Classroom Teaching. Avon L.E.A. Guidelines 1988/89.
Walker,R. (1985) Doing Research, Cambridge University Press.
Whitehead,J. (1989) How do we improve research-based professionalism in education? British Educational Research Journal, Vol.15, No.1, pp3-17.
Whitehead,J. (1993) The Growth of Educational Knowledge: creating your own living educational theories.
Whitehead, J. (1997) An original contribution to educational knowledge and professionalism: a commentary on two papers presented at AERA, Chicago, 1997, in Lomax, P. (Ed) (1997) Dimensions of the educative relationship: case studies from teaching and teacher education. Kingston; Kingston University.
Winter,R.(1989) Learning from Experience, London;Falmer Press.

Zuber-Skerritt, O. (1996) New Directions in Action Research, London, Washington; Falmer
The first five issues of the International Journal, Educational Action Research Vol, 1. nos 1-3 and Vol2, nos. 1-2, will also provide relevant literature.

Those references marked in BOLD are useful introductory texts.