Pages: 7

The authors have conducted their own classroom research and want to share with the readers what he authors have learned from their experiences in teaching, teacher-education and research over the past 30 years. Along with their experience of researching their own classroom practices, they have also worked in several trans-generational and trans-institutional settings, supporting education students and teachers at all levels as they conducted action research in their classrooms. Many teachers feel swamped and demotivated currently; some, by what seems like poor, conflicting and ever-changing educational policies. The authors are convinced of the importance of the readers being in control of their own professional development and researching what is important to them. This is a form of research that is suitable for any context in your work – school leader, classroom teacher, head teacher, special needs teacher, lecturer in teacher education, among others.

Pages: 19

This chapter introduces the reader to the activities that educators might implement as they begin an educational action research project in their classrooms. It outlines the practical tasks that might be useful at the initial stages of the research project in terms of critical reflection, professional reading, journal writing and the role of critical friends. It also gives some examples from teachers’ and student-teachers' research accounts so that readers might see how other teachers might have undertaken research in the classroom. The final section of the chapter outlines what educational action research in the classroom is, its key features and why it is important.

Pages: 18

This chapter outlines the more formal aspects of undertaking values-led research in the classroom. It emphasises the unique nature of each teacher/researcher's values, practice and research. It outlines how reading, writing, dialogue and critical reflection are ongoing activities throughout the research process and makes practical suggestions for finding a research focus and doing practice writing. It explains the term “living contradiction” and gives some examples of how teachers approached their educational action research projects. The chapter concludes by outlining the pivotal role questions like “What are my concerns?” and “Why am I concerned?” hold in the process of educational action research.

Pages: 17

This chapter outlines how an educational action research project might be planned. It explains practicalities such as finding a research question, the importance of critical friends, the role of values in educational action research, ethical permissions, establishing standards of judgement, thinking about data collection and drawing up a timeline. It provides the reader with some examples from teachers’ research accounts of how they planned their educational action research projects. The chapter concludes with an in-depth exploration of the role of values and their articulation in educational action research projects.

Pages: 19

This chapter outlines how a practitioner researcher might collect and use data while undertaking educational action research in their practice. It describes how teachers might engage in initial data collection to show the situation as it is at the outset of the research project. Readers will be introduced to data collection tools and how the data might be collected, triangulated and used. The chapter presents the reader with examples of how teachers have gathered data in their educational action research projects, the difficulties they encountered and how they dealt with them. The final section of the chapter explains the ethical issues pertaining to data collection, data collection strategies, data collection for student teachers and the purpose of data collection.

Pages: 12

This chapter outlines how educational action researchers establish standards of judgement by which they evaluate the quality and validity of their claims. It explains how data does not speak for itself. It shows how through a process of sifting through the data, the researcher extracts specific data samples that count as evidence because they demonstrate accordance with the standards of judgement established by the researcher. It also addresses the validation processes teacher researchers can utilise to demonstrate the quality of the research, giving an example from a teacher's research project. The chapter also explains how teacher researchers can generate their educational theory from their practice.

Pages: 15

This chapter outlines how the teacher researcher can generate theory from their new learning from educational action research. It shows how theory is presented in the form of a validated account that offers descriptions of the new learning and explanations around its relevance. These accounts are strengthened by validated evidence and rigorous critique. The chapter outlines the practicalities involved in generating theory. It also describes the importance of articulating the significance of an educational action research project and provides examples from practising teachers.

Pages: 18

In this chapter, guidance is offered around the processes of writing a research account. It outlines the practicalities of writing and disseminating a research account, as well as examples from those who have already done this. The chapter explains why writing and sharing the research story is of the utmost importance in the research process.

Pages: 4

From working as educational action researchers for almost three decades, the authors have learned that this research approach is of huge benefit to teachers at all stages of the continuum: student teachers, newly qualified teachers, established teachers as well as themselves. They embraced the approach as mature teachers and found it to be transformational, re-energising and inspirational. In addition to such transformational possibilities, educational action research can be viable, optimal, worthwhile, and sustainable form of research for teachers and student teachers to undertake. Its viability lies in that the teacher researcher can investigate real-life situations. The readers need only focus on what is of importance to their practice. The authors have found that it is optimal in that it is most likely to bring success, new insights or advantage.