An action research project invariably begins with addressing a question of practice: how can I develop my students as independent learners?, how can I improve the morale of my staff ? Can we better support new arrivals in adjusting to school? Can we make better use of outdoor play areas? How can we set up a breakfast club? How can we offer a more purposeful kind of CPD and so on.

You might want to think about action research questions in relation to other types of question being asking in education research. Table 1 suggests some of the questions which might be asked about motivation, pupil attainment and socio-economic group. Only the second question is a ‘how can I question’ leading to action research; with less optimism the question can be rephrased as 'Can 1......'

Of course the action researchers might in the course of their project ask one or more other questions within the table, action researchers may also be ethnographers, surveyors, grounded theorists, but the point is that the enquiry is driven by this action orientated question.

Question	Likely methodological approaches	Because the focus is
Are people born into lower social economic classes more likely to achieve lower educational outcomes?	Systematic review, meta analysis, large N studies, survey research	on generalizing
Can I work with disaffected students to provide them with greater motivation to study?	Action research	changing a situation for the better
Can you tell me your story of disaffection at school?	Narrative, life story	Understanding meaning making
Does setting encourage pupil attainment?	Evaluative enquiry / experimental study	what works (with a policy agenda in mind)
What initiatives have there been in addressing underachievement in the past?	Documentary analysis	Understanding the past
How is school failing children from lower socio economic backgrounds?	Critical enquiry	Normative enquiry
What is going on in the classroom?	Ethnographic immersion	Understanding actions
Who is under attaining?	Survey research	Describing the extent of the phenomena
Why do some underachieve and with what consequences?	Grounded theory / exploratory case study	Understanding without preconceptions

 

 

Reflection

If you were carrying out a investigation of your practice would it be action oriented? If so how could you frame the question to reflect this?