Action Research Qualitative Inquiry in Practice

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Action ResearchQualitative Inquiry in Practice

• AACTE ANNUAL MEETING 2007
• New York
• Dr. Dorothy Valcarcel Craig dvcraig_at_mtsu.edu
• Ms. Kathyrn Boudreau Patten kpatten_at_mtsu.edu
• MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY

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Action Research is

• Practical data leads to practical improvements
• Participative coworkers working together
• Empowering all participants can affect change
• Interpretive social reality is determined
  collaboratively
• Tentative inquires do not result in right
  answers
• Critical participants search together for
  practical improvements

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The Basics

• The Study of All Aspects of Life
• Examination from the Inside
• The Situation and All it Entails
• Descriptive Picture of Reality
• Results in informed decisions for improving
  practice

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Two Kinds of Research
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Why Inquiry-Based Action Research?

• Accountability
• Well Informed, Highly Qualified Educators
• Reflective Practice
• Improving Practice
• Teaching
• Learning
• Student success

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Action Research Practitioner Research

• Disciplined inquiry
• Conducted specifically to improve practice
• Focused on
• Changes within the classroom setting
• Solutions and improvements

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Inquiry-Based Research Requires the Practitioner
to

• Take part in prolonged engagement within the
  practitioner-based environment
• Recognize researcher as instrument as well as
  other more traditional instruments
• Collect and analyze multiple forms of data
• Utilize and describe situations in order to
  improve practice

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Main Features

• Natural settings
• Multiple forms of data
• Rich in description
• Process over product
• Inductive analysis
• Meaning
• Solutions
• Dissemination of findings to improve practice

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The Role of the Researcher changes asthe study
evolves, the problem is further defined, the
situation becomes clear,the patterns emerge,the
action plan is developed
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Proactive vs Reactive

• Try a new practice
• Incorporate hopes and concerns
• Collect data
• Check what the data may mean
• Reflect on alternative behaviors
• Try another new practice

• Collect data to diagnose
• Analyze the data for themes and ideas
• Distribute data to others and announce possible
  changes
• Try a new practice
• Check for reactions
• Collect data for diagnostic purposes

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Continuous Improvement
PROBLEM SOLVING
ACTION RESEARCH
REFLECTIVE PRACTICE
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
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• Identify the problem
• What do you want to find out?
• Subjects
• Who will be involved?
• Fieldwork
• How will you gain access?
• Structure
• What is the best structure to engage and observe?
• Historical case study
• Experimental
• Observational case study
• Narrative inquiry
• Multiple sites
• Multi-case
• Data
• What types of data will enable understanding?

Designing a Study
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Multiple Forms and Sources of Data
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The Demand for Ongoing Data Analysis Forces the
Researcher to

• Make decisions that
• Narrow the study
• Determine the path taken
• Develop ongoing, revised analytic questions,
• Plan data-collection sessions based on previous
  sets of data,

• Record observer comments,
• Try new ideas and themes,
• Begin exploring metaphors, analogies, and
  concepts
• Utilize multiple forms of visual devices

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The Demand for Summative Data Analysis Forces the
Researcher to

• Record recurring
• regularities
• Irregularities
• Develop topics, phrases, and categories
• Take apart and break down data
• Reassemble data
• Analyze the emerging theory

• Organize data using whatever system is most
  efficient
• Develop a unique coding system
• Examine data in order to uncover any recurring
• Words
• Phrases
• Patterns of behavior
• Patterns indicating a subjects thinking
  processes
• Blatant clues

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Why is Action Research Effective?

• Practitioners are likely to engage in reflective
  dialog regarding teaching and learning
• Critique is ongoing
• Collaboration, consulting and conferencing are
  natural within the learning community

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Effective Practitioners and Action
ResearchPractitioners usually want to improve
conditionsCan rely on insider
informationAre able to use expertise to improve
practice
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Tips for Beginners

• Field Journals
• Ongoing Literature Reviews
• Data Collection
• Documentations via Technology
• Interview Techniques
• Survey Instruments
• Consider Analysis
• Consider Patterning
• Identify multiple forms of data within the
  environment

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Getting Started
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Research Questions Data Sets