This week in our Action Research course we read Chapter 2 of Nancy Fichtman Dana's Leading with Passion and Knowledge. This chapter described 9 related areas in which educational leaders seek inquiry and the benefits of performing action research in each area. The following gives an example of an action research inquiry for each of the 9 areas and an explanation of why action research is important to each of these areas:

1.Staff development Example: In what ways can I, as a principal help facilitate the professional growth of the teachers within my building through engagement in action research? How can the process of teacher research become a part of my teachers’ professional development plans? Importance: Action Research by principals in the area of Staff Development facilitates the professional growth of teachers. This in turn helps to keep teachers invigorated and keeps learning vibrant and alive for their students. It provides personalized professional growth that fits the needs of the teachers and in turn increasing student learning. Participating in action research in an ongoing school based staff development program is also one indicator of instructional leadership which is essential for meaningful school improvement to take place. 2.Curriculum development Example: How can I build my own knowledge of exemplary writing practice? How do I use learning communities as a tool for teachers and me to utilize in the transformation of the writing curriculum at Newberry Elementary? Importance: Action Research in the area of Curriculum Development is important because research shows that a quality curriculum is essential in achieving educational excellence and meaningful change at the school level. The quality of the curriculum is one of ten factors that influences student achievement. While good teaching methods are essential, delivery of poor content only results in a great deal of mislearning. 3.Individual teacher(s) Example: What types of support help my new teachers succeed? How can I best help an out-of-field teacher succeed? What is the relationship between changing a veteran teacher’s grade-level assignment and getting her out of a rut? Importance: Action Research provides the support and development to new teachers as well as veteran teachers. It can be used as a resource for mentoring to increase the quality of teaching which in turn increases the quality of the school. For new teachers, it is a way to provide the administrative support needed in making the transition from novice to experienced professional. For mid-career teachers, it is a way to meet the challenges of remaining fresh and energetic. Veteran teachers can benefit from action research as they are awakened to new ways of seeing things and as a powerful tool for improving their teacher. 4.Individual student(s) Example: What happens to struggling readers in our school after they leave intervention programs? In what ways are out-of-school or in-school suspensions as a consequence for discipline referrals affecting student performance? Importance: Action Research is tool that can be used to help reach those students who stand out for a variety of reasons. It can be used to evaluate effectiveness of curriculum as well as shape programs to meet the school’s and the student’s needs. It provides a form of problem solving in the development and enrichment of school-wide procedures and programs. 5.School culture/community Example: What role does a weekly school-wide meeting play in creating a caring school culture? Importance: Action Research can be used to help evaluate and understand a school’s culture and the need to shape or reinforce it. It is a valuable tool in determining the existing culture and the actions that are shaping it. Action Research can be used to evaluate both formatively and summatively to understand the impact of decisions or programs and then shape them to increase the effectiveness and quality of school-wide interactions. 6.Leadership Example: What do I learn from comparing and contrasting my own perceptions, my teachers’ perceptions, my leadership team’s perceptions, and my supervisor’s perceptions about my own instructional leadership as a principal? Importance: Principals can utilize action research to explore and develop their own leadership skills over the course of their administrative lifetimes. Group inquiry can provide the opportunity for exploration, reflection, collaboration and affirmation of ideas. This support and affirmation from group members provides opportunities for principals to set new goals for their own leadership development. Another benefit that participation in action research is the role-modeling it demonstrates for teachers in development of their own inquiry and learning. 7.Management Example: How can we all work together (students, teachers, lunch paraprofessionals, kitchen workers, custodians, and principal) to make lunchtime a cooperative and pleasant time for everyone? Importance: Action research in the area of management helps principals define and balance their role as manager with their role as a leader. It helps principals explore the duties, opportunities, and options concerning managerial duties such as daily planning, organizing, budgeting, and scheduling. Action research provides opportunities to explore alternative options for procedures in search of the best ways to utilize resources such as personnel, time and materials. 8.School performance Example: What actions can our faculty take to improve reading achievement of our lowest quartile students? Importance: Action research is important to school performance because it presents opportunities for principals to gain incite and explore their relationship to school performance and raising student achievement. Inquiry through action research helps principals gather information, formulate plans, develop policies, and determine a direction that needs to be taken to increase academic achievement and overall school improvement.. 9.Social justice or equity issues Example: In what ways does a whole-group book study on Ruby Payne’s A Framework for Understanding Poverty contribute to how we, as a Lake Butler Middle School administration and faculty, might create change and work toward breaking the cycle of poverty? Importance: Action research can be an important tool for promoting social justice and equity. Inquiry can help administrators understand how their available resources can be utilized to meet the needs of culturally diverse groups of students and teachers. Sometimes a passion for an aspect of social justice or equity is developed through action research. When this occurs, there is a willingness to invest more of one’s own resources and energy in an effort to reform classrooms and schools. Action Research in this area can help close gaps in opportunity and academic achievement between groups of students. It can be used to examine, improve, and change practices that neglect or limit the progress of some groups of students. It helps to explore how instructional practices help or hinder groups of students.

Action Research

Action Research Defined:

Action Research refers to the process of engaging in a systematic collection of information based on one's own practices, to be analyzed and processed. This intentional study follows a posed question by the action researcher who is seeking to take action for change based on what is learned as a result of the inquiry. Thus, action research can become a powerful tool for administrators and teachers in school and learning improvement.

Action Research vs. Traditional Research

While traditional research offers valuable insights and knowledge about teaching and learning, it does not include the people who are most familiar with the hands on processes of teaching and learning. Action research on the other hand, is a continual set of spirals consisting of reflection and action. It engages educational leaders in the practice of designing questions, data collection, and the interpretation of data around their posed questions. Each spiral involves the following:

• Clarifying and diagnosing a practical situation that needs to be improved or a practical problem that needs to be resolved
• Formulating action strategies for improving the situation or resolving the problem
• Implementing the action strategies and evaluating their effectiveness, and clarifying the situation, resulting in new definitions of problems or areas for improvement to the next spiral of reflection and action

Action Research Benefits

This educational approach to research has many benefits that include the following:

• Opportunities to be surrounded with other professionals conversing about practice in systematic and meaningful ways.
• Opportunities to become role models for teachers and students
• Engagement in action research helps best practices to flourish
• Participation in action research results in a slowed pace from the harried pace that typically characterizes a principal’s role.
• Engagement in inquiry forces you to devote sustained attention ot one issue, tensionk, problem, or dilemma. This focus enables you to vecome proactive rather than reactive to administrative practices.

• Through participation in action research, the principal develops a sence of ownership in the knowledge constructed which contributes to the possibilities for real change in schools
• Through participation in action research, principals and teachers benefit in the enhancement of their own professional growth

• Theories and knowledge are generated from research grounded in the realities of educational practice
• Practioners become collaborators in educational research by investigating their own problems, and

Practioners play a part in the research process, which makes them more likely to facilitate change based on the knowledge they generate