Action research was a topic completely unknown to me
at the beginning of this course. I had
never heard the term and have thought of research in the traditional sense as a
static, boring process that resulted in a published document or finding that
would be read or seen by others. As
such, I wondered when there would be time for research in a school setting,
where there is never a static or boring moment!! So, the process began.
I came to learn through the lectures and the reading
of the texts for the course that action research is based on a
wondering/question posed by the researcher and is an ongoing process which
collects data from various sources, and intends to bring about change. Although
there are many topics in a school which are worthy of further inquiry, it
became obvious to me as I learned more about action research that selecting
just one was not as easy as it first sounded.
Once I became more aware of the process and progressed through the
assignments, I began to doubt that my initial wonderings had enough substance
to them to stand up to the rigor of the action research process. In the process
of reading my classmates discussion topics on the board, I also felt that maybe
my topic needed some redirection.
The timing of this course being in the summer when
school is out, held some unique challenges for me in that we also have a new
Principal and a new Assistant Principal in our campus. When our new principal came, she was very
busy then had a week of vacation, so I was getting a little panicked. Fortunately, she was very nice and made time
to meet with me and discuss in detail my project as well as help me formulate
the context of study for me to be sure my project was feasible. From there, my
plan was set.
Throughout this course, I have felt that the
assignments were very well-designed and that Dr. Abshire and the Instructional
Associate, Dr. Ashford, were extremely helpful and compassionate when it came
to understanding technical difficulties experienced by many of the students,
including myself. I was glad to see I am
not the only one who sometimes misunderstood submission directions and /or
technology issues. I appreciated the
organization and structure of the course in addition to the weekly overview
letters which added more details and caveats about the current week’s to-do
list.
I felt that all of the discussions, feedback, texts,
blogs and lectures were very relevant and helpful in my learning. The theory and feedback both led to the
realization that this is not just a decision that needs to be made, researched,
then implemented, but a flexible process that will require adjustments along
the way. I feel confident that even if I run into obstacles or my research gets
off track, I will know what to do and how to redesign or reevaluate my process.
I am looking forward to getting started and putting all of my new knowledge as
an action researcher into practice as well as implement changes based on my
findings when my initial research is complete.
