Action Research Innovation And Change

Action research continues to see a growth in interest both internationally and across disciplines. This book demonstrates the diversity in settings and focus for action research and provides a guide to its core aspiration: to achieve principled change. Written by authors from a range of countries and range of disciplines (including education, health care, palliative care, social work and community development), this book answers these key questions: How can action research be used to achieve principled change? How has action research been applied in various disciplines and in different countries? What can be learnt about the conduct of action research from these diverse settings? By means of detailed case studies of successful projects and discussions that challenge and raise theoretical questions, this book explores some of the contemporary cutting edge applications and conceptualisations of action research. Action research paves the way for the empowerment of people involved in social action, and the examples of successful change processes that are the core of this book will prove inspirational and provide practical advice. Written by a range of leading international researchers in the field, this book will define the future for action research for years to come.

This book presents a fresh view of action research as a methodology uniquely suited to researching the processes of innovation and change. Drawing on twenty-five years’ experience of leading or facilitating action research projects, Bridget Somekh argues that action research can be a powerful systematic intervention, which goes beyond describing, analyzing and theorizing practices to reconstruct and transform those practices. The book examines action research into change in a range of educational settings, such as schools and classrooms, university departments, and a national evaluation of technology in schools. The opening chapter presents eight methodological principles and discusses key methodological issues. The focus then turns to action research in broader contexts such as ‘southern’ countries, health, business and management, and community development. Each chapter thereafter takes a specific research project as its starting point and critically reviews its design, relationships, knowledge outcomes, political engagement and impact. Action Researchis important reading for postgraduate students and practitioner researchers in education, health and management, as well as those in government agencies and charities who wish to research and evaluate change and development initiatives. It is also valuable for pre-service and in-service training of professionals such as teachers, nurses and managers.

This book presents a fresh view of action research as a methodology uniquely suited to researching the processes of innovation and change. Drawing on twenty-five years’ experience of leading or facilitating action research projects, Bridget Somekh argues that action research can be a powerful systematic intervention, which goes beyond describing, analyzing and theorizing practices to reconstruct and transform those practices. The book examines action research into change in a range of educational settings, such as schools and classrooms, university departments, and a national evaluation of technology in schools. The opening chapter presents eight methodological principles and discusses key methodological issues. The focus then turns to action research in broader contexts such as ‘southern’ countries, health, business and management, and community development. Each chapter thereafter takes a specific research project as its starting point and critically reviews its design, relationships, knowledge outcomes, political engagement and impact. Action Research is important reading for postgraduate students and practitioner researchers in education, health and management, as well as those in government agencies and charities who wish to research and evaluate change and development initiatives. It is also valuable for pre-service and in-service training of professionals such as teachers, nurses and managers.

This book is concerned with action research as a form of teacher professional development. In it, John Elliot traces the historical emergence and current significance of action research in schools. He examines action research as a "cultural innovation" with transformative possibilities for both the professional culture of teachers and teacher educators in academia and explores how action research can be a form of creative resistance to the technical rationality underpinning government policy. He explains the role of action research in the specific contexts of the national curriculum, teacher appraisal and competence-based teacher training.

The past is an increasingly unreliable guide to the future. European workplaces and the regions in which they are located face unprecedented pressures and challenges. Whereas in recent decades incremental adaptation has largely been sufficient to cope with external change, it is no longer clear that this remains the case. Globalisation, technological development and dissemination, political volatility, patterns of consumption, and employee expectations are occurring at a rate which is hard to measure. The rate of change in these spheres is far outstripping the rate of organisational innovation in both European enterprises and public governance, leading to a serious mismatch between the challenges of the 21st Century and the organisational competence available to deal with them. In this context, there is no clear roadmap. The contributors to this volume address these issues and demonstrate that building the knowledge base required by actors in this volatile environment requires continuous dialogue and learning – a context in which social partners, regional policy makers and other participants share diverse knowledge and reflect on experience rather than seeking and imitating any notion of 'best practice'. Action Research has a crucial role to play, embedding shared learning within the process of innovation.

Measuring innovation in education and understanding how it works is essential to improve the quality of the education sector. Monitoring systematically how pedagogical practices evolve would considerably increase the international education knowledge base. We need to examine whether, and how ...

First Published in 1991, Action Research for Change and Development presents a collection of papers evolved from an international symposium on Action Research in Higher Education, Government and Industry held in Brisbane in 1989. The book is structured in three parts. Part one consists of reflections on the meaning and theoretical foundation of action research. Part two discusses various aspects of action research methodology; and Part three presents case studies of action research. The aim of the book is to bring together international experts in action research in higher education in order to present and discuss a variety of models of action research which have been developed in parallel in many parts of the world. This book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of education, higher education, business, industry, and community development.

Questions about what to teach and how best to teach it are what drive professional practice in the English language classroom. Innovation and change in English language education addresses these key questions so that teachers are able to understand and manage change to organise teaching and learning more effectively. The book provides an accessible introduction to current theory and research in innovation and change in ELT and shows how these understandings have been applied to the practical concerns of the curriculum and the classroom. In specially commissioned chapters written by experts in the field, the volume sets out the key issues in innovation and change and shows how these relate to actual practice offers a guide to innovation and change in key areas grounded in research relates theory to practice through the use of illustrative case studies and examples brings together the very best scholarship in TESOL and language education from around the world This book will be of interest to upper undergraduate and graduate students in applied linguistics, language education and TESOL as well as pre-service and in-service teachers, teacher educators, researchers and administrators keen to create and manage teaching and learning more effectively.