ACTION RESEARCH IS EDUCATION RESEARCH

Action Research as an Approximation of Experimental Research

            Action research is a recognized approximation of experimental research (Dick & Swepson, 1994) that focuses on the effects of the researcher’s direct actions of practice within a participatory community with the goal of improving the performance quality of the community or an area identified as problematic (Dick, 2002; Hult & Lennung, 1980; McNiff, 2002; Reason & Bradbury, 2001; Reason & Bradbury, 2006).  Bodner and MacIssac (1995) go so far as to characterize causal empirical-analytic action research as one of the two most prevalent research methodologies in a discussion of “causal models of educational interventions” (p. 4).  The causal empirical-analytic method is pre-experimental in design, as is any action research model that involves planning for actions based on observation and formative evaluation determined by empirical measurement. 

            Oquist (1978) claims the social and subjective elements of action research are strong enough to make it consistent with empiricism (or logical positivism).  This concept of empiricism, that evidence comes from direct observation, is central to experimental research and action research of the analytic type.  It is, according to Oquist, a viable process for pragmatism and dialectical materialism to the extent that action research can practically address worldly concerns.  Action research can focus on naturally occurring and experimentally elicited phenomena (Larsen-Freeman & Long, 1991), and it is this flexibility that makes it a prevalent research process, specifically in education. 

            Action research, more generally, involves utilizing a systematic cyclical method of planning, taking action, observing, evaluating and critical reflecting prior to planning the next cycle (McNiff, 2002). The actions have a set goal of addressing an identified problem in the workplace, for example, improving student understanding through the use of new interventional approaches and strategies (Quigley, 2000). Action research is a collaborative planning method to test new ideas and implement action for change; it is a way to increase understanding of how change in one’s actions or practices can mutually benefit a community of practitioners (Carr & Kemmis 1986; Kemmis & McTaggart, 1990; Kemmis & McTaggart, 2000; McNiff, 2002; Reason & Bradbury, 2001) and therefore an organization; it involves direct participation in a dynamic research process, while monitoring and evaluating the effects of the researcher’s actions with the aim of improving practice (Checkland & Holwell, 1998; Dick, 2002; Hult & Lennung, 1980).  This causal-empiric analytical perspective of action research, termed the scientific-technical view of problem solving (McKernan, 1991, p. 16) has the researcher in this approach “test a particular intervention based on a pre-specified theoretical framework,” with collaboration between the researcher and the practitioner being primarily technical (Holter & Schwartz-Barcott, 1993, p. 301).  The researcher identifies the problem and a specific intervention, and uses a procedural approach and empirical measurement to test the intervention (Cooke & Cox, 2005).  It is in this sense action research is an approximation of experimental research (McCutcheon & Jurg, 1990).  Action research in education seeks confirmation or denial of a causal relationship between an intervention and post-intervention evaluation to guide future iterations of an intervention, is pre-experimental in design, and thus is an approximation of experimental research.

Educational Action Research

            Educational action research is currently the most prolific area of action research publication (Dick, 2006); however, recent literature in educational action research is frequently found under different labels.  Many action research journal articles convey the idea that practicing teachers conducting action research has gained support (Hubbard & Power, 1993; Zuber-Skerritt, 2001) because it is inquiry that applies scientific thinking to real life problems, (Shannon, 1990) to increase instructional effectiveness and an understanding of how actions affect outcomes (Noffke & Stevenson, 1995). Van Lier (1994) sees action research as small scale intervention (p. 1) in the functioning of the real world and a close examination of the effects of such an intervention.  The Handbook of Action Research (Reason & Bradbury, 2001) reinvigorated the process of action research in education making quality a primary concern, and defined action research as the umbrella term for participatory and action-oriented approaches.

School Improvement as Action Research

            A change-oriented improvement process has always been with public schools. 

The history of public education is one of recurrent alternations between centralization and decentralization of power and authority (Cuban, 1990; Darling-Hammond 1988).  Some call it site-based management while others simply call it school improvement; either way, these terms express some form of action research.  The action research could be conducted in the interests of empirical-analytic (technical), hermeneutic (practical), or critical (emancipatory) understanding. 

            Empirical-analytic action research relates to means-to-an-end approaches to organizational improvement (Zuber-Skerritt, 1991), or getting things accomplished effectively by following a positivist paradigm.  Hermeneutics is a more interpretative science approach related to practical interests and centers upon pragmatic decision-making in situations.  Critical science is emancipatory in its interests and involves extricating people from organizational determinism, or even determination of habit and custom at the level of individuals (Slentz, 2003).

            Most schools employ an empirical-analytic approach oriented towards functional improvement measured in terms of its success in changing particular outcomes of practice (Kemmis, 2001; O’Brien, 2001).  Examples of empirical-analytic action research in the literature aim to increase or decrease the incidence of a particular outcome.  Iterations of empirical-analytic action research often develop through the use of hermeneutics.  Examples of hermeneutical action research provide a similar theoretical framework to that of the empirical-analytic type. Referring to this approach to practical action research as action learning (Carr & Kemmis, 1986, p. 23), the focus more often than not is social transformation through personal understanding (Dick, 1997).  Adoption of one action research method is rarely to the entire exclusion of all others.

            There is little in the way of standardization of action research nomenclature (Altrichter, Kemmis, McTaggart & Zuber-Skerritt, 2002) however Worcester County public schools have adopted a formalized change-oriented school improvement process in the form of the Middle States Association Committee on Institution-Wide Accreditation.  The school improvement process of Accreditation for Growth (AFG) at the individual school-level is a part of this accreditation process for Worcester County. AFG can be understood as a commitment to the public to make continuous improvement of student performance.  It is a process by which the school conducts self-studies to draw conclusions about school improvement and student achievement from data.  These data-driven decisions then inform instruction to meet student needs.  School improvement initiatives are determined by the self-studies of each school, and ultimately an accreditation body reviews the plans and progress of each school to award the county certifications.  Though AFG and action research are not interchangeable terms, they are ways in which schools meet goals of school improvement.

THIS HAS BEEN A SELECTION FROM MY 2008 EXECUTIVE POSITION PAPER.

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Dr. Rorke