Action Research WEEK 1 REFLECTIONS

In this assignment for this week, I have learned so much information about action research. I learned that the name action research is usually though to be a form of research that brings a change related to either a social or justice focus. I learned that action research combined with practitioner research has now become known as inquiry. Action research also called administrative inquiry can be a useful form of professional development where instead of bringing outside researchers in to educate the administrators of a school/district, the administrators engage themselves in a systemic and intentional process in which they utilize to study their own administrative practices and based on the inquiry's results and takes action to redirect anything that hinders the student learning and improvement (Dana 2009). I also learned that administrative inquiry/action research can be summed up in six steps which requires the principal to observe what needs changing, reflect on ways to make the change through questioning and wondering, gather and collect information to become knowledgeable about their question/wonder, consult the data using literature that is relevant to the situation, based on a new understanding received during the inquiry, make changes in his/her practice, and finally share the changes with all the stakeholders. The final thing I learned in regard to action research is that it is quite different from the traditional form of research. With traditional research the practitioner is seen as technician or story character with the researcher being someone outside of the educational setting. Traditional research has a process that is linear and discursive and the questions represented in the research are from the researcher. Action research is a whole different concept. The practitioner is now a storyteller, operating on the inside of the school's organization. The process of collecting the data is cyclical, with the main source of questions coming from the principal. This is basically what I learned from this week's lesson on action research.