LAI 515 - Action Research to Improve Teaching and Learning: Books

Drawing on a rich variety of participatory action research (PAR) methods including ethnographic observation, artefact collection, focus groups, and interviews, this volume explores the transformational potential of development programs which actively involve marginalized groups. Foregrounding the experiences of female migrant workers in Beirut, the text reveals how direct participation in NGO-led, community programs and education empowers women to create counter-cultural communities and spaces for learning and activism. The text ultimately combines aspects of critical pedagogy, spatial analysis, and third world feminisms to propose a subaltern praxis for research, development, and teaching. It will appeal to scholars and researchers with interests in research methods in education, migration, equality and human rights and the anthropology of education.

This volume describes a Participatory Action Research (PAR) project involving educators from Belize and the U.S. to illustrate the critical role of shared dialogue in transnational teacher education. First identifying issues which inhibited the success of formerly didactic training delivered to Belizean teachers by U.S. educators, this volume documents the transformational impact of a shift to collaborative training approaches and uses first-person accounts from Belizean and U.S. stakeholders to illustrate their successes. Chapters powerfully illustrate that by engaging in Freirean-like dialogue and building relationships based on a mutual understanding of the cultural and historical context, as well as the identity of educators involved, partners are better able to engage in effective transnational pedagogical collaboration. Particular attention is paid to the importance of acknowledging the post-colonial setting and unique positionality of teachers in Belize. This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in action research and teacher research, multicultural education, and continued professional development in particular. Those interested in teacher training, education research, and international and comparative education will also benefit from this book.

Assuming no prior knowledge of research methods and techniques, this book is the perfect companion for teachers at all levels undergoing professional development who need to enhance their formal reflection skills. Providing a detailed explanation of what action research is and its importance in terms of whole school development, this book invites the teachers to try out educational research for themselves and adopt an investigative attitude that will help improve and evaluate practice. It includes: * Support and guidance that help you tackle key issues * "Real-life" practical case studies that underline what action research is and how it can be effectively used.

Teachers are the single most important element in helping every child succeed in school. Action Research for Teacher Candidates has been written in the hopes of equipping teachers-in-training with the skills needed for action research: a process that leads to focused, effective, and responsive strategies that help students succeed. Robert P. Pelton is also the author of Making Classroom Inquiry Work: Techniques for Effective Action Research, which is designed to serve those who wish to delve deeper into their action research or as leaders in teacher research and reflective practice. These two books serve as both a perfect training curriculum for pre-service teachers at the undergraduate or graduate level and as an excellent vehicle for professional development for in-service teachers.

As more teachers undertake action research projects, serious questions need to be raised about the value and validity of these projects. How can teachers ensure that their results are valid? Are teachers drawing conclusions supported by data? The purpose of this book is to guide teachers through the process of developing questions, designing their methodology, and collecting data so that they can draw trustworthy conclusions and report them accurately and fairly. This book will: Offer an explanation of action research as well as its history, Help the reader to develop a research problem and explore how this problem can be studied, Show teachers how to do a review of literature that will inform the study, Show how to analyze and interpret data. Features: Written in a language that respects the discipline without being overly academic or formal, Four teachers share their experiences in action research, Exercises allow teachers to apply what they are learning in a step-by-step process

Since its first publication, Action Research: Principles and Practice has become a key text in its field. This new updated edition clearly describes and explains the practices of action research and its underlying values, and introduces important new ideas, including: all professionals should be reflective practitioners; they should produce their personal theories of practice to show how they are holding themselves accountable for their educational influences in learning; the stories they produce become a new people's history of action research, with potential for influencing new futures. This new edition has expanded in scope, to contribute to diverse fields including professional development across the sectors and the disciplines. It considers the current field, including its problems as well as its considerable hopes and prospects for new thinking and practices. Now fully updated, this book contains: A wealth of case-study material New chapters on the educational significance of action research An overview of methodological and ethical discussion The book is a valuable addition to the literature on research methods in education and nursing and healthcare, and professional education, and contributes to contemporary debates about the generation and dissemination of knowledge and its potential influence for wider social and environmental contexts. Practitioners across the professions who are planning action research in their own work settings will find this book a helpful introduction to the subject while those studying on higher degree courses will find it an indispensable resource.

In the second edition of Doing Educational Research, we explore a variety of critical issues and methodologies. Authors include some of the most influential voices selected from across the spectrum of career disciplines. The scholars provide detailed insights into dimensions of the research process that engage both students and experienced researchers with key concepts and recent innovations in the art of doing research. The contributors adopt a stance that is practical as it introduces beginning scholars to social inquiry, and innovative as it transforms the boundaries of conversations about educational research. Doing Educational Research appears at a critical moment in which educational researchers are pushed to align with a pervasive scientism that embraces tenets of crypto-positivism. The book addresses logics of inquiry, underpinning cutting-edge approaches to educational research that extend far beyond limited visions that are presented through the lenses of positivism. The chapters explore a variety of methodologies including action research, bricolage, ethnography, hermeneutics, historiography, media-based research, psychoanalysis, and conversation analysis, in a matrix of social theory, authentic inquiry, critical pedagogy, and differences in epistemology, ontology, and axiology. A diverse array of complex topics are presented in accessible forms and will compel both scholars and students.