What I Have Learned About Action Reserach

The main thing I have learned about action research (or principal inquiry) this week is that it has actually been taking place on my campus for the past three school years and needs to continue in a district wide manner. At first glance at the material I thought it was nothing I was familiar with. Upon careful reading of the material for this week, I recognized how the components had been utilized on my campus the past three years.

Our outgoing principal made a lot of changes when he arrived on our campus. In particular our team planning periods were restructured so that all teachers who teach the same grade/subject have the same conference period and can all come together to plan during the day instead of having to stay after school for collaboration. Our principal would then throw out questions we had not had the chance to prepare ourselves to answer during these sessions, which of course made us very uncomfortable. While I am sure his research had some value (he was a doctoral candidate) the rest of us kind of felt like guinea pigs. We were part of the wondering and the research, but as the principal has taken another job, far away, we will never know the outcome of the research action plan we were part of.

Now, our central administration team could take a lesson from the principal. I believe we spend too much time and quite frankly too much money utilizing consultants from outside our district to provide us recommendations on how to fix problems ranging from discipline to score improvement. Several years ago, local personnel did the research and kept us going in the right direction. For the past few years it has been the outsiders. Finally, it would appear the concept of action research is emerging in our district. I just hope we have more of a chance to participate than be experimented upon as my campus has far the past three years. We will be so much more effective if we work together to solve our problems utilizing the steps needed for a true action research project.

I just hope to be able to conduct my action research in a manner that is beneficial to my coworkers and campus rather than making people feel like they operate under the microscope at school. My biggest fear is making people feel like people on my campus have felt the past three years. Hopefully there will be more factors in my favor as opposed to negatives.