Week 2 - Action Research by Passion

The more I learn regarding Action research, the more I believe it is happening, in an informal manner, more often than I first imagined at the beginning of the course.  I appreciated the topics discussed in the interviews of District and campus administrators and how they used Action research, especially in regard to the disaggregation of data.  I am looking forward to this kind of research and am very thankful it is what it is, as opposed to traditional research, or pouring over someone elses research, without being able to create my own.

Action Research

I have found the information on Action Research very interesting.  I dreaded the idea of research, but the idea of being a researcher for problems or challenges of my own, and then doing the research necessary to address it is so appealing.  Action Research, or Action Inquiry, as it is also known, is the process of a leader engaging in systematic, intentional study of a challenge through the context of his/her own administrative practices and then taking action for a solution or change based on what was learned then. Action Research encourages reflection, ownership, and local control.  It engages the researcher to live the research and thus leads to solutions that are relevant and can be fully understood and implemented.  It is important to note that conducting action research in learning communities, whether campus based, or with other leaders within an organization may well be the most effective way to conduct research.  Traditional research, conducted by outsiders, such as Process-Product research and the Quatitative Paradigm have the problem that it is transmissive and the users of the research don't have any ownership.  It the research is faulty, it is unlikely the users will say so, for fear of being seen as a failure.

Blogging for Edcucational Leaders

I am new to blogging, unless you count Facebook as a blog.  I actually worry that using a blog may become just one more thing teachers need to check for information and may become a frustration if used as a communication venue.  But, to use it as a way of sharing with other leaders to work toward solving problems and improving systems, then blogging can be very powerful.  It is hard to conduct research in isolation, and blogging would allow a sharing of resources and actually creates a learning community.