Teacher Action Research EARCOS Workshops: Trustworthy Teacher Action Research

Teacher Action ResearchWorkshop 3:Trustworthy Teacher Action Research

EARCOS Teachers Conference

28-31 March 2012

Donna Kalmbach Phillips, Ph.D.

Pacific University, OR USA

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Trustworthy Teacher Action Research

What makes a teacher action research project good?

This interactive workshop is designed to introduce criteria for creating and implementing trustworthy action research projects. Participants will analyze the role of triangulation and self-reflexivity; consider the selection of appropriate data collection strategies; and explore the importance of critical colleagues and collaboration.

Teacher Action Research: Process Workshops

Framing the Study

Discover an Area of

Focus

Develop a critical Question

Research Design

Literature Review

Trustworthy Action Research Design

Data Analysis, Interpretation

Research Design

Triangulation

Criteria for Trustworthiness

Data Analysis

Fundamentals

Ongoing Analysis:

Cycle & Strategies

Final Data Interpretation

Going Public

Critical Questions

Researcher Dispositions

What is trustworthy action research?

Methodological Rigor

Since action research starts with everyday experience and is concerned with the development of living knowledge in many ways the process of inquiry is as important as specific outcomes.

Reason & Bradbury, 2001

Criteria of Trustworthy Action Research

Criteria of Trustworthy Action Research

Criteria of Trustworthy Action Research

Criteria of Trustworthy Action Research

Observation

Artifact

Interview

Researchers

Journal

Researchers

Journal

Multiple Perspectives: Triangulation

Thick Description

?

Seeking Multiple Perspectives: Data Collection

Seeking Multiple Voices: Colleagues, students, parents, specialists, community members.

Criteria of Trustworthy Action Research

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Criteria of Trustworthy Action Research

Criteria of Trustworthy Action Research

What kind of design supports trustworthy AR?

Gets to the heart of what you want to study

Focused but not too narrow

Structured and flexible

Deliberately plans for on-going assessment, adjustments

Is do-able: enriches & energizes, does not overwhelm

Who is the trustworthy researcher?

Curious

Tenacious

Risk-taker

Able to re-frame, re-configure, re-think

Collaborative

Critique Research Design for Trustworthiness

Find a partner

Read through the integrated research design

Critique for trustworthiness

Act as a critical colleague: What are the strengths? What suggestions would you make?

Focused but not narrow

Structured with flexibility

Deliberate plans for on-going analysis

Is do-able as a teacher

Getting Started

What is my area of interest?

What is my question?

What design gets to the heart of what I want to study?

What am I going to try out, evaluate and study?

What data will best serve my research?

When is it best to conduct this research?

What is a possible time line?

Who should be involved and in what ways?

What are my paradigm, beliefs and biases?

What literature do I need to read? How can I find this out?

Ethical Considerations of Action Research:Gaining Permissions

Question 1:

Will your research project be made public?

YesNoYou must gain written permission from parents and verbal permission from students. University and/or school district policies may apply If the project is embedded within the teaching-learning project, you may not need to gain permissions. Check with EARCOS. Getting permission is always preferred.

Question 2:

Does your research project include participants who may be more vulnerable than others or have protected status under law?

YESNOPermission is critical. Check with school administrator. Make sure informed consent letters are sent home, can be read & understood by parents/guardians, and are returned signed by parents/guardians. See Question 1

Question 3:

Is there any possibility that data collected from your research project would be harmful to participants (emotionally, physically)?

YESNORe-think & revise your project. Anything harmful, even potentially harmful, should not be included in the project. This includes any opportunities for other students to bully students or threat to a students sense of self-worth. Grades should never be tied to the AR project. Excellent! Continue to next question.

Question 4:

Do you plan to collect images of students?

YESNOMany schools have policies surrounding video-imaging and/or taking pictures of students, even if they are not going to be made public. Check with administrator. If you plan to include any images in a public presentation of any kind, you must seek and have signed permission from parents/guardians/students. Be specific about the kind of images you will collect, where and how they will be displayed, and how they will be stored. Are you sure? Often, audio-recordings, video-images, and/or digital pictures are excellent data, support triangulation, and place other data in context.

Getting Permission: Informed Consent

Topic of Project

Objective of project

Interventions, strategies, what will be tried out

Data to be collected

Timeline of project

Why & how image-taking will happen; what will happen to images

Request to use images

How project will be made public

How confidentiality will be maintained

Any potential risks

A returned slip to be signed by parents

Action research is systematic. It involves a self-reflective spiral of planning, acting, observing, reflecting and re-planning. It requires teachers to be acutely aware of a sense of process, and to refine their perceptions to account for that processaction research raises to a conscious level much of what is already being done by good teachers on an intuitive level. It enables teachers to identify and come to grips with their practice in a human way that is at once supportive and critical.

McNiff, 2008

Teacher Action Research: Process Workshops

Framing the Study

Discover an Area of

Focus

Develop a critical Question

Research Design

Literature Review

Trustworthy Action Research Design

Data Analysis, Interpretation

Research Design

Triangulation

Criteria for Trustworthiness

Data Analysis

Fundamentals

Ongoing Analysis:

Cycle & Strategies

Final Data Interpretation

Going Public

Critical Questions

Researcher Dispositions

Reference List

TRUSTWORTHY

TEACHER

ACTION

RESEARCH

Goodness

Crystalline Validity

Catalytic Validity

Questions of Emergence

& Enduring Consequences

Evidence of Becoming:

Transformation

Living Knowledge

Movement

Strong Sense of Connection

Multiple PerspectivesSelf-Reflexivity

Meaningful Results

Evidence of Becoming:

Transformation

Living Knowledge

Movement

Strong Sense of Connection

Multiple Perspectives Self-Reflexivity

Meaningful Results

Connection between:

Theory/literature

Critical Question

Research design

Data Analysis & Interpretation

Context of Study

Evidence of Becoming:

Transformation

Living Knowledge

Movement

Strong Sense of Connection

Multiple Perspectives Self-Reflexivity

Meaningful Results

Triangulation of Data

Seeking Multiple Voices

Evidence of Becoming:

Transformation

Living Knowledge

Movement

Strong Sense of Connection

Multiple Perspectives Self-Reflexivity

Meaningful Results

Making transparent the role of the teacher-researcher

as participant

Documenting change throughout research

Evidence of Becoming:

Transformation

Living Knowledge

Movement

Strong Sense of Connection

Multiple Perspectives Self-Reflexivity

Meaningful Results

Does the research make a difference?

The ACTION in action research

Adequate Time

Evidence of Becoming:

Transformation

Living Knowledge

Movement

Strong Sense of Connection

Multiple PerspectivesSelf-Reflexivity

Meaningful Results

Connection between:

Theory/literature

Critical Question

Research design

Data Analysis & Interpretation

Context of Study

Making transparent the role of the teacher-researcher

as participant

Documenting change throughout research

Triangulation of Data

Seeking Multiple Voices

Does the research make a difference?

The ACTION in action research

Adequate Time