action research
Action research is research that is carried out by a practitioner in an attempt to improve their practice through a systematic cycle (or cycles) of planning, doing and reflecting. Examples might include:
- developing literacy teaching in a school,
- setting up and providing a health care centre for a disadvantaged community,
- planning a nature research,
- 'unblocking' failures in communication in a work-based setting, or
- working with children to design games software.
Action research appears to have a particular relevance for technology as it offers one means of the perennial problem of teacher adoption of technology. Top down implementation does not seem to work, bottom up implementation offers opportunities for adapting technology to circumstances.
As a concept action research has its roots in John Dewey's view that learning is experiential, that is we learning by making meaning of our experiences. This implies that innovation is iterative; we do not know all there is to know when first introducing an innovation. We need to adapt in the light of experience.
The term 'action research' is widely see as having been first used by Karl Lewin in work on citizenships in the 1940s in the USA to describe research leading to social action. Action research, while never disappearing, was re-visited in the 1980s and the work of Carr and Kemmis was highly influential in education and professional learning. They envisaged action research as a form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own practices, their understanding of these practises, and the situations in which the practices are carried out (Carr & Kemmis, 1986: 162).
Action research has the considerable advantage in that it seeks to directly improve practice for the better. Tensions within models of action research include the number and nature of the steps in an enquiry. For example, models have been described in terms of cycles of 'plan, do, reflect', but also as 'reconnaissance, planning, implementing and evaluating'. There are many further variations; seven and eight stage models have been suggests. Most would recognise the importance of mini cycles of doing and reflecting within each stage of a project. There are further debates as to whether enquiries are problem or opportunity orientated, and what this implies.
A key concern is how to present, and how to assess the quality of an action research project (see Elliot, 2006). This is sometimes associated with the audience; sharing an action research project across peers in a key stage is quite different to using action research to convince policy makers of a productive course of action. At a more fundamental level there are tensions concerning implementation. Bogdan & Biklen (1992), for example, see the aim of action research as the collecting of information for social change. The stress here is on understanding, rather than implementation. Critiques of action research question the capacity of practitioners to undertake and report research, and how willing they are to participate in systematic enquiry given its time-consuming nature. They also question whether findings can be generalised, replicated or validated adequately.
Technology can be an object for action research but can also play a role in data collection during action research:
1. Photographs can provide a speedy, and clear point of reference for discussion or evidence, or serve as an illustration to accompany transcripts. You could ask students to comment on them, although viewers don't always interpret as much from photos as would from, for example, conversation.
2. Audio recording can be used during interviewing others, or gathering records of classroom interaction. You can take a step back from the immediacy of the conversation and reflect on the conversation from a different perspective.
3. Video recording offers sound and vision, but beware that more is less. You may wish to use a number of freeze frames and use the stills as a focus for the question 'What is happening here?' If you don't have a camera operator, you will only get one point of view in the space.
Because many of these technologies lend themselves to student use, you may wish to consider your students as participant-researchers. Be sure to check the organisation's policy on the use of images, particularly if you work with children or young people.
The ICT Test Bed Project Evaluation had multiple strands of evaluative activity, ranging from maturity models to survey and case study. It also had a significant amount of resource set aside for action research to be undertaken by the teachers and lecturers using the technology. This report is a cross-case analysis of the individual action research studies undertaken.
Things to remember if you intend to undertake action research:
1. A wide variety of approaches claim, or could claim, alignment with action research. It is fundamental to offer a definition of action research if you claim to be following it in your study, and be aware that you are working within a particular tradition in broad field. Some projects are described as action research when they are not, because they lack a commitment to action. Some are better understood as case studies as they are reporting practice and innovations from the outside. Some are better described as experiments (although not necessarily in the experimental tradition) in which the researcher has been minded to follow a course of action in advance of any reconnaissance carried out.
2. Some reports assume there are agreed methods and procedures for action research; there are not. Consider the history of term, the tensions between writers, and show critical awareness of strengths and weaknesses of this kind of research.
3. Reporting of action research can seem excessively descriptive and introspective to its critics. If you are offering a narrative of an innovation then this needs to be defended. You will need to clearly show how you are providing evidence of analysis and critique.
4. Ethical dilemmas can arise from the dual role of the practitioner researcher, who has obligations both to learners and the intended action, and to building knowledge. It can be challenging to design ethics into the iterative action research process. Hitchcock & Hughes (1989) 'Research and the Teacher' offers a helpful starting point.
You may like to read these examples of action research from the ICT Test Bed project. They were undertaken by busy teachers, who have been willing to share their work more widely. As you read, think critically about the text, whether you would consider this to be action research, and how robust you believe the study to be. Bear in mind that these studies were undertaken 2004-6, and hence the technologies you may take for granted were not widely used.
Using cameras to support a child with autism.