The literature on action research (AR) is extensive, covering a large number
of professional settings and work situations and a large number of countries.
We are extremely grateful to Anne Burns and Graham Crookes, who recommended
a great number of texts. We have chosen some from their lists and added
others ourselves to give readers a varied guide through the literature.
You will find that there are a number of works from general education and
some studies from non-educational settings.
Online Resources
XTAR is a US based website and email discussion list for teachers involved
in AR. You can reach it at www.ced.appstate.edu/projects/xtar/xtar.
Bob Dick of Southern Cross University runs a twice yearly 14-week email
course on AR. It is beautifully and simply written, and there are many chances
to collaborate with other teachers from across the globe, as well as those
outside teaching: from African farmers to psychiatric counselors. Information
from scu.edu.au/schools/sawd/areol/areol-home.html.
Access professional development and teaching resources from this website,
Professional Connections, developed by the National Centre for English Language
Teaching and Research in Australia. The URL is nceltr.mq.edu.au/pdamep/.
Paper Resources
Altrichter, H., Posch, P. & Somekh, B. (1993). Teachers investigate
their work. London: Routledge. pp. 223.
If you are going to buy one book for practical ways to do AR, this is
as good as any. The authors have put together a reservoir of forty methods
and strategies for each stage of the AR cycle. The first eight chapters
are intensely practical, with lots of hands-on activities to help teachers
think about research, to collect data, and then to do things with them.The
sections on research diaries and ways of making teachers' knowledge public
are particularly good.
Burns, A., & Hood, S. (Eds.). (1995). Teachers' voices: Exploring
course des{gn in a changing curriculum. Sydney: National Centre for
English Language Teaching and Research. pp. 137.
Burns, A., & Hood, S. (Eds.). (1997). Teachers' voices 2: Teaching
disparate learning groups. Sydney: National Centre for English Language
Teaching and Research. pp. 160.
Burns, A., & Hood, S. (Eds.). (1998). Teachers' voices 3: Teaching
critical literacy. Sydney: National Centre for English Language Teaching
and Research. pp. 68.
These three volumes are examples of ordinary language teachers doing
research and then publishing their findings. The case studies vary in subject
matter and quality, but underlying all is a concern for the voice of the
teacher to be heard. Burns and Hood do an excellent job in each volume of
setting the scene for both AR and the research theme. The third volume is
perhaps the strongest, where the editors have found just the right level
of research detail and classroom reality in their writers.
Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. (Eds.). (1993). Inside/ Outside:
Teacher research and knowledge. New York: Teachers College, Columbia
University. pp. 310.
The editors have been at the forefront of arguing for teacher knowledge
to be viewed as valuable as outside researcher knowledge. In this collection
they devote a third of the book to describing how teachers and researchers
can work together to create such a community of knowledge and two thirds
to the varied voices of the teachers themselves. These voices are expressed
in the same genres that the editors suggest could be used as ways of communicating
teacher knowledge, for example, journals or oral studies. The result is
a marvelous chorus of teacher experiences from a huge number of US educational
settings.
Crookes, G. (1993). Action research for second language teachers: Going
beyond teacher research. Applied Linguistics, 14 (2), 130-144.
The only journal article we have included is this seminal one by Crookes,
in which he articulates his arguments against the technical versions of
AR emerging in the language teaching literature. He looks critically at
the roles and responsibilities of school administrators and academic researchers.
He suggests that schooling systems may need to be transformed so that teacher
researchers may be better supported in their AR efforts to effect curricular
and pedagogical change in their teaching environments. This is a challenging
and thought-provoking article which gets to the heart of critical, participatory,
and emanclpatory approaches to action research.
Edge, J., & Richards, K. (Eds.) (1993). Teachers develop teachers
research: Papers on classroom research and teacher development. Oxford:
Heinemann. pp. 197.
This is the report of the first tdtr conference held at Aston University,
which has now spread and grown to its fifth biannual meeting. This first
conference brought together people from language teaching and several other
fields. Some of the better known contributors include Nunan, Allwright,
and Underhill, plus various case studies from teachers around the globe.
One article that particularly stands out is Bridget Somekh's on quality
in AR, which alone makes the book worth getting. It is also interesting
to see how the editors link the pieces together and give their own takes
on how to report AR.
Elliot, J. (1991). Action research for educational change. Milton
Keynes, UK: Open University Press. pp. 163.
Elliot was one of the first researchers on Lawrence Stenhouse's Humanities
Curriculum Project in the UK in the 1960s, then going on to work in the
Ford Teaching Project in the 1970s. Both projects are classic action research
approaches to teacher and curriculum development. Elliot revisits that time
and brlngs his thinking up to date by looking at a number of issues in British
education, including the introduction of a national curriculum. Elliot is
a deeply committed educational thinker who looks to both challenge and inspire
teachers.
Greenwood, D. (1999). Action research: From practice to writing in
an international action research development program. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins. pp. 282.
This is a recent collection of papers about international collaboration
on an industry-based AR project in Scandinavia. It is of particular interest
to those who have already done some research and want to read both about
taking partnership and collaboration further and about the role of writing
in the AR process. Greenwood's chapter on the rhetoric of AR writing is
salutory. There is much baring of souls and much evidence of civilised disagreements.
Goswami, D., & Stillman, P. (1987). Reclaiming the classroom:
Teacher research as an agency for change. Upper Montclair: Boynton Cook.
pp. 242.
This is a superb book for busy teachers, as all the articles are short,
and they are very provocative. You will not get bored reading this. The
source of the many articles is the Bread Loaf School of English, which is
a network of support for teachers in rural areas of the US. Many of the
articles are perspectives on writing, and Mina Shaughnessy's controversial
article on teaching writing should be compulsory reading for every teacher.
Again, an example of teachers' voices and what the genre of AR reporting
might look like.
Hollingsworth, S. (Ed.) (1997). International action research: A casebook
for educational reform. Washington DC: Falmer Press. pp. 337.
As the title suggests, this is a collection of international reports
of theory, historical review and case studies.There are five sections: discourse,
politics, personal, professional, and an epilogue bringing these together.
There are 25 articles in all, with each section introduced by a well known
scholar in AR. There is just one, rather limited, language teaching example,
but the others do give an excellent insight into the huge breadth of AR,
particularly how communities of workers, both outsider researchers and insiders,
have collaborated to effect change.
Kemmis, S., & McTaggert, R. (Eds.) (1988). The action research
planner (3rd ed.). Deakin: Deakin University Press. pp. 154.
For many this is the classic AR text, although it may be a little difficult
or expensive to track down nowadays. There are two main sections. In the
first section there are two very challenging chapters on the nature and
philosophy of AR and a very practical chapter called The Planner, which
leads the teacher researcher through a number of questions in the AR process.
There are then four appendices which give practical help for doing research
as well as several case studies. For those interested in a critical and
participatory approach to AR this is compulsory fare.
McDonough, J., & McDonough, S. (1997). Research methods for English
language teachers. London: Arnold. pp. 262.
Readers may find this introduction to research methods, both qualitative
and quantitative, particularly helpful because it is embedded in the TEFL
profession and focused on research issues in the EFL classroom. The first
part of the book discusses research issues and traditions in the teaching
context and includes a chapter on the teacher researcher and AR. In the
second half of the book, the writers present a spectrum of research topics
and techniques including observation, diary studies, descriptive statistics,
experimental studies, questionnaires and interviews, verbal reports, and
case studies.
McKernan, J. (1996). Curriculum action research. A handbook of methods
and resources for the reflective practitioner (2nd ed.). London: Kogan
Page. pp. 278.
This collection, written by one of the doyens of AR, is divided into
three parts: history, methodology, and issues. The history is a superb gloss
of the field with McKernan putting forward his own model of AR as well as
sixteen defining characteristics, with the warning that, of course, definitions
are always changing. If you want to know exactly what AR is and where it
has come from, this is your text. The second part has a brief description
of 48 qualitative methods, including a very good section on case study,
and other less well known methods such as neutral chairperson, dilemma and
episode analysis. The final part looks at current issues in AR, including
a survey of five lnternational institutions where AR is a taught course.
McNiff, J. (1988, reprinted 1997). Action research: Principle and
practice. London: Routledge.pp.164.
McNiff, J. (1993). Teaching as learning: An action research approach.
London: Routeledge. pp.125.
Collins, U., & McNiff, J. (1999). Rethinking pastoral care.
London: Rooutledge. pp.217.
McNiff has written extensively on AR, and the two earlier books are superb
guides to practical AR issues which are well worth getting. In the co-edited
book with Una Collins there is a remarkable collection of teachers' stories
from schools in Ireland. These are inspiring reports of how teachers cope
with issues beyond classroom methodology or techniques. Aidan O'Reilly's
chapter, "Sir! Sir!," is a heartbreakingly honest account of his
efforts to work with adolescents who were described as awful and unmanageable.
A must read and take your tissues with you.
McTaggert, R. (Ed.). (1997). Participatory action research: International
contexts and consequences. New York: SUNY. pp. 282.
This is a very good collection of international articles giving a mainly
historical perspective on AR. There are several examples of educational
projects, including Grundy's survey of Australian work, particularly that
done by Kemmis and Carr at Deakin University, and one on the Ford Teaching
project in the UK by John Elliot's partner Adelman. The most inspirational
chapter is by Batliwala and Patel (mentioned by Graham Crookes in the feature
article interview) describing their work collaborating with thousands of
street dwellers in Bombay to conduct a census. It certainly puts Monday
morning's lesson in perspective.
Noffke, S. E., & Stevenson, R. B. (Eds.). (1995). Educational
action research: Becoming practcally critical. New York: Teachers College,
Columbia University. pp. 228.
The foreword by Cochran-Smith and Lytle and the introductory chapter
by Noffke are eloquent essays and must reads. Noffke's fundamental questions
are what and how AR can contribute to the development of a more caring and
just system of schooling for teachers and students. This book may help readers
understand AR from historical, theoretical and critical perspectives and
presents 13 case studies in teacher education, in practice, and in teaching
support systems.
Wells, G., Bernard, L., Gianotti, M. A., Keating, C., Konjevic, C., Kowal,
M., Maher, A., Mayer, C., Moscoe, T., Orzechowska, E., Smieja, A., &
Swartz, L. (1994). Changing schools from within: Creating communities of
inquiry. Toronto: OISE Press. pp. 286.
In an excellent opening chapter, Wells critiques the current field of
teacher research in education. He then introduces a collection of nine studies
by teacher researchers who were students in an AR course he taught as part
of a graduate studies program in education. The first six studies cover
literacy learning in elementary schools, and the last three examine the
concerns of teacher educators. The final chapter is an account of Well's
own AR as a university-based teacher educator.
