You are here

Action Research in Education
Share

Action Research in Education
Learning Through Practitioner Enquiry

Second Edition


December 2012 | 184 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd

Action Research in Education is an essential guide for any lecturer, teacher or student-teacher interested in doing research.

This exciting new edition of a popular text is an important resource for any education professional interested in investigating learning and teaching. Building on the success of Action Research in the Classroom, the authors have revised, updated and extended this book to include examples from further and higher education.

It maps out easy-to-follow steps for usefully applying an action research approach and is full of practical tips and examples of real-life practitioner research projects from a range of schools, colleges and universities.

This book will help teachers to:

  • Understand and apply practitioner inquiry
  • Enhance their problem-solving skills
  • Locate their own activity in a wider context
  • Maximize opportunities to develop practice
  • Evaluate the needs of their learners

Clear, pragmatic and timely, this is a must-have text for all teachers and students of education.

 
Introducing Practitioner Enquiry
 
Understanding Practitioner Enquiry
 
Ways of Being a Practitioner Enquirer: Beliefs, Ethics and Practice
 
How to Do a Practitioner Enquiry: Finding and Refining a Question
 
How to Do a Practitioner Enquiry: Deciding on an Approach and Complementary Methods
 
Taking Account of Learner Perspectives in Your Enquiry
 
Exploring Your Own and Your Colleagues' Professional Knowledge
 
Engaging with the Views of Families and the Wider Community
 
Making Sense of It, Making Connections and Bringing It Together
 
Sharing Your Findings, Finding New Questions
 
Index

Action Research in Education is written with the mastery of those who have a deep appreciation of the lived reality of the teacher as professional, as researcher and as practitioner - Baumfield, Hall and Wall know their subject and their people. Its engaging clarity and lucidity brings to life the real practice of action research at all levels in education. In getting to the very essence of action research, written with the innate respect for the academic and non-academic researcher alike Baumfield, Hall and Wall have produced a timeless classic'
- Helen O'Sullivan, Lecturer in Educational Leadership and Management, Trinity College Dublin


'A well illustrated compendium of 'when', 'why' and 'how' to use action research. A must-have for new researchers engaged in practitioner or action research, with ample examples of real case studies to promote both intraprofessional and interprofessional dialogue, in community and professional contexts'
-Christine O'Hanlon, Honorary Reader in the School of Education and Lifelong Learning, University of East Anglia


Praise for the first edition:

'Is action research easy? No! Is it achievable? Based on the strength of this text, the answer is an unqualified 'yes'. The book is an accessible, thorough and comprehensive guide to both the processes and heavyweight issues involved in action research'

Learning & Teaching Update


`Both the style and the content of this book would seem to make it an excellent core text for PGCE or undergraduate level courses in teacher or student teacher research...It offers an easy-to-follow research approach that allows true reflection on practice'

ESCalate


This is a really clear and accessible text for students carrying out dissertations which involve action research in education. There are plenty of examples and reflection opportunities throughout.

Mrs Issy Hallam
Psychology, South Devon College
January 19, 2018

Thank you very much for your important contributions to the educational community. I also thank you for the academic copies you sent. It was a quick delivery, it was a surprise for me. Greetings from Turkey.
Galip ÖNER - Erciyes University-Faculty of Education

Mr Galip Oner
Education, Erciyes Universitesi
September 15, 2017

Provides a range of examples of practitioner research. Useful examples of positivist and interpretivist approaches and discussion of these paradigms. Guidance on finding and refining a question as well as practical resources such as writing frames and templates etc.

Mrs Lorna Hughes
Faculty of Education, Canterbury Christ Church University
September 13, 2016

It is a useful guide for scholars and educators to understand the pratic way of doing action research in the field of education. It supports problem solving skills and reflecting process to do better action research.

Mr Gurkan Tabak
Turkish Language Teaching Department, Erciyes Universitesi
October 15, 2015

Clear and easy to read. Will prove useful for students undertaking an action research project in a classroom setting.

Miss Louise Kay
Department of Education, Huddersfield University
June 18, 2015

An excellent textbook, clearly written for both the novice and established researcher, who are interested to delve deeper into the depths of practitioner research within the education sector.

Mr Dominic Cunliffe
School of Sport, Tourism and Languages, Southampton Solent University
December 16, 2014

I expected this book to be more practical than this. it is filled with conceptual frameworks and theory which although helpful is not really what I was expecting.

Ms Danielle White
Education , Univ. of Manchester
September 1, 2014

An excellent text suitable for all undergraduate and post graduate students and teachers. Excellent in terms of creating a theoretical framework for CPD

Mr Michael Hall
Management , City College Norwich
July 16, 2014

Excellent read, this is an essential read for any one wishing to carry out action research in the education setting.

Mrs Joanne Heyes
Educational Foundations , Riverside College Halton
April 3, 2014

Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter One


Vivienne Baumfield

I am Professor of Pedagogy, Policy and Innovation in the School of Education and my teaching and research focuses on the role of inquiry in teachers’ professional learning.  I am interested in the role of universities, and teacher educators in particular, in the creation and translation of knowledge about teaching and learning.  This interest is linked to the wider issue of the relationship between theory and practice in  professional development. More About Author

Elaine Hall

Expertise: qualitative and quantitative measures, research design, narrative interviewing, questionnaire design, analytic frameworks, research management.Research interests: early literacy and language development, parental involvement, adult literacy and family literacy, teacher development and identity, learning and meta-cognition. More About Author

Kate Wall

 Kate Wall is Professor of Education at the University of Strathclyde. A primary teacher by background, her work is characterised by enquiry-based partnership with children and practitioners of all ages and stages.  More About Author

For instructors

Purchasing options

Please select a format:

ISBN: 9781446207208
£36.99
ISBN: 9781446207192
£118.00

SAGE Research Methods is a research methods tool created to help researchers, faculty and students with their research projects. SAGE Research Methods links over 175,000 pages of SAGE’s renowned book, journal and reference content with truly advanced search and discovery tools. Researchers can explore methods concepts to help them design research projects, understand particular methods or identify a new method, conduct their research, and write up their findings. Since SAGE Research Methods focuses on methodology rather than disciplines, it can be used across the social sciences, health sciences, and more.