A Practical Guide to Action Research for Literacy Educators

Who Uses Action Research?
Action Research is conducted by administrators,
head teachers, and teachers who are fully aware of
the day-to-day issues in their teaching environments
and decide to undertake systematic inquiry into the
identified issues. Educators who apply this approach
are those who wish to improve understanding of
their practice, support the learning of a student or
students, or have been invited to do so by
decision-makers aware of a problem requiring Action
Research. Action Research projects may be
conducted by one individual in one classroom, by a
team of two or several educators, by an entire school,
by an entire school district, or in collaboration with a
university or other agency.
While Action Research is usually focused on specific
issues in specific classrooms, there are benefits to
collaboration during and after the process.
Conducting Action Research in teams allows mutual
support for the resolution of mutual issues.
According to Greenwood and Levin (1998, p. 4),
teams can work together to “define the problems to
be examined, co-generate relevant knowledge about
them, learn and execute social research techniques,
take actions, and interpret the results of actions
based on what they have learned.”
It is helpful to find colleagues and work with them
because it breaks the “isolation barrier’ often caused
when a teacher is the only adult in the classroom.
When teachers collaborate on an Action Research
project, they know that they are not alone in finding
answers to challenging situations. Action Research
promotes professional conversations as teachers
work together in pairs or teams to address mutual
concerns. Working with colleagues broadens the
horizons of understanding to find similar issues
solved in a similar manner.
Action Research assists practitioners and other
stakeholders in identifying the needs, assessing the
development process, and evaluating the outcomes of
the instructional changes they define, design, and
implement. Collaboration spreads the work of
Action Research among the stakeholders. It
encourages dialogue about practice and brings
multiple perspectives to the planning, conduct, and
interpretation of Action Research. There is safety and
strength in numbers. The collective expertise of the
group can enrich the research process and the
findings (Brozo, 2011).
Bringing a collaborative group together for Action
Research promotes a problem-solving culture across
classrooms, grade-levels, and schools as team
members come together for a shared purpose.
Collaborative Action Research focuses on inquiry in
school communities with different faculty members
functioning as co-researchers. The ultimate aim of
collaborative Action Research is to develop a
sophisticated understanding of the problems, issues,
and practices of teachers in authentic settings,
bridging the gap between theory and practice
(Stringer, 1996).
Collaborative partners in Action Research are those
people who are directly involved in the situation they
are researching. The more members of the
collaborative Action Research group who know
about the research concern, the more they can help
in clarifying the ideas and developing action plans
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