Action Research

Jean McNiff is Professor of Educational Research at York St John University, UK. She is also a Visiting Professor at UiT the Arctic University of Norway, and at the Beijing Normal University and Ningxia Teachers’ University, People’s Republic of China. Jean took early retirement from her position as deputy head teacher of a large secondary school in Dorset, UK. She went into business for herself, and developed her writing. Her textbooks on action research and professional education are now used internationally on workplace-based professional education courses and on higher degree courses. Jean provides interdisciplinary consultancy work to institutions around the world where she gives lectures and conducts workshops on planning, doing and writing action research.Jean aims to contribute to personal and social betterment through educational research. She encourages everyone to make their stories public in the form of their personal and collaborative theories of practice; and she firmly believes that each individual is able to contribute to social and planetary wellbeing by explaining how they hold themselves accountable for what they do. In this way she links education with moral accountability. She tries to bring the university to everyday contexts, and everyday contexts into the university, for it is only by involving everyone, she feels, that the world will become a better place for us all.

Well structured, clearly written and accessible. I highly recommend it for anyone who plans to enhance their professional practice through action research.

• AcknowledgementsIntroductionPART I: WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW?Chapter 1: What is action research?Chapter 2: Who can do action research?Chapter 3: The values base of action researchChapter 4: Critical times for action researchPART II: WHY DO I NEED TO KNOW?Chapter 5: Why do action research?Chapter 6: The responsibility of practitioner-researchers: contributing to new practices and new learningChapter 7: The responsibility of practitioner-researchers: contributing to new thinking and ideasChapter 8: The responsibility of practitioner-researchers: engaging with the literaturesPART III: HOW DO I FIND OUT?Chapter 9: Thinking about doing an action research projectChapter 10: Planning to do your action researchChapter 11: Carrying out your action plansChapter 12: Evaluating the quality of your plans, practices and researchPART IV: HOW DO I GENERATE EVIDENCE TO TEST THE VALIDITY OF MY KNOWLEDGE CLAIM?Chapter 13: Monitoring practices and gathering dataChapter 14: Working with data: analysing, authenticatin and interpretingChapter 15: Generating evidence from the data and making knowledge claims: summary chapterPART V: HOW DO I TEST AND CRITIQUE MY KNOWLEDGE?Chapter 16: Testing the validity of your knowledge claimChapter 17: Establishing the legitimacy of your knowledge claimPART VI: HOW DO I REPRESENT AND COMMUNICATE MY KNOWLEDGE?Chapter 18: Thinking about writing your dissertationChapter 19: Writing up your dissertationPART VII: HOW DO I SHOW THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MY KNOWLEDGE?Chapter 20: The significance of it allReferencesIndex