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The SAGE Handbook of Educational Action Research
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The SAGE Handbook of Educational Action Research

Edited by:


May 2009 | 568 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
This handbook presents and critiques predominant and emergent traditions of Educational Action Research internationally. Now a prominent methodology, Educational Action Research is well suited to exploring, developing and sustaining change processes both in classrooms and whole organisations such as schools, Departments of Education, and many segments of universities.

The handbook contains theoretical and practical based chapters by highly respected scholars whose work has been seminal in building knowledge and expertise in the field. It also contains chapters exemplifying the work of prominent practitioner and community groups working outside universities.

The Editors provide an introduction and conclusion, as well as an opening chapter which charts the historical development of action research and provides an analysis of its underlying theories. The handbook is organized into four sections, each beginning with a short introduction:

- Action research methodology: diversity of rationales and practices

- Professional: Knowledge production, staff development, and the status of educators

- Personal: Self-awareness, development and identity

- Political: Popular knowledge, difference, and frameworks for change

This is a key resource for scholars and graduate students at doctors and masters levels, as well as school leaders and administrators.

Susan Noffke is Associate Professor of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Illinois - Urbana/Champaign and co-editor with R.B. Stevenson of Educational Action Research (Teachers College Press, 1995). She taught at the primary school level for a decade, and has led masters and doctoral level courses in action research for the past 20 years. She continues to work with many collaborative projects with schools and school districts.

Bridget Somekh is Professor of Educational Research at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She is a founder editor of the Educational Action Research journal and has been a co-ordinator of the Collaborative Action Research Network (CARN) for many years. She is co-editor of Research Methods in the Social Sciences (SAGE: 2005) and author of Action Research: a Methodology for Change and Development (Open University Press: 2006).

Susan E. Noffke and Bridget Somekh
Introduction
Susan E. Noffke
Revisiting the Professional, Personal and Political Dimensions of Action Research
 
PART ONE: ACTION RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: DIVERSITY OF RATIONALES AND PRACTICES
Introduction to Part I

 
John Elliott
Building Educational Theory through Action Research
Marilyn Cochran-Smith and Susan L Lytle
Teacher Research as Stance
Gordon Wells
Dialogic Inquiry as Collaborative Action Research
Sandra Hollingsworth, Anthony Cody, Mary Dybdahl, Leslie Turner Minarik, Jennifer Davis-Smallwood and Karen Manheim Teel
Action Research and the Personal Turn
Wilfred Carr and Stephen Kemmis
Educational Action Research: A critical approach
Morwenna Griffiths
Action Research for/as/Mindful of Social Justice
 
PART TWO: PROFESSIONAL: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION, STAFF DEVELOPMENT, AND THE STATUS OF EDUCATORS
 
Introduction to Part II
Cathy Caro-Bruce, Mary Klehr, Ken Zeichner and Ana Maria Sierra Piedrahita
A School District-Based Action Research Program in the United States
Christine O'Hanlon
Using Action Research to Support Students with Special Educational Needs
Chris Bigum and Leonie Rowan
Renegotiating Knowledge Relationships in Schools
Catherine Lewis, Rebecca Perry and Shelley Friedkin
Lesson Study as Action Research
Professional Development, Teacher Voice and Knowledge Production

 
Gary L Anderson and Kathryn Herr
Practitioner Action Research and Educational Leadership
Shoshana Keiny and Lily Orland-Barak
Educational Action Research as a Paradigm for Change
Christopher Day and Andrew Townsend
Practitioner Action Research: Building and Sustaining Success Through Networked Learning Communities
Lesley Saunders and Bridget Somekh
Action Research and Educational Change: Teachers as Innovators
Marie Brennan
A School System Takes on Exhibitions through Teacher Action Research
Herbert Altrichter and Peter Posch
Action Research, Professional Development and Systemic Reform
Barbara Comber and Barbara Kamler
Sustaining the Next Generation of Teacher-Researchers to Work for Social Justice
Susan Groundwater-Smith
Co-operative Change Management through Practitioner Inquiry
 
PART THREE: PERSONAL: SELF-AWARENESS, DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY
 
Introduction to Part III
Jane Zeni
Ethics and the 'Personal' in Action Research
Mary Louise Holly
Writing to Learn: A process for the Curious
Marion Dadds
From Passionate Enquiry to Loving Detachment: One researcher's Methodological Journey
Debbie Pushor and D Jean Clandinin
The Interconnections between Narrative Inquiry and Action Research
Melanie Walker
Capabilities, Flourishing and the Normative Purposes of Action Research
Jean McNiff and Jack Whitehead
Demonstrating Quality in Educational Research for Social Accountability
Petra Ponte and Jan Ax
Action Research and Pedagogy as Science of the Child's Upbringing
Richard Winter
Developing Relationships, Developing the Self: Buddhism and Action Research
Terrance Carson
Teaching and Cultural Difference: Exploring the potential for a psychoanalytically informed action research
Dennis Sumara and Brent Davis
Complexity Theory and Action Research
Bridget Somekh
Agency through Action Research: Constructing Active Identities from Theoretical Models and Metaphors
Allan Feldman
Existentialism and Action Research
 
PART FOUR: POLITICAL: POPULAR KNOWLEDGE, DIFFERENCE, AND FRAMEWORKS FOR CHANGE
 
Introduction to Part IV
Patricia Maguire and Britt-Marie Berge
Elbows Out, Arms Linked: Claiming spaces for feminisms and gender equity in educational action research
Pat Thomson and Helen Gunter
Students' Participation in School Change: Action research on the ground
Peter C Murrell Jnr.
Community Action and Agency in the Education of Urban Youth
Professional Development, Teacher Voice and Knowledge Production

 
Marie Brennan and Susan E Noffke
Social-Political Theory in Working with Teachers for Social Justice Schooling
Andrew Gitlin
Rethinking Action Research: Commonsense and Relations of Freedom
Eduardo Flores-Kastanis, Juny Montoya-Vargas and Daniel H Suárez
Participatory Action Research in Latin American Education: A road map to a different part of the world
Maureen Robinson and Crain Soudien
Teacher Development and Political Transformation: Reflections from the South African experience
Ángel I Pérez Gómez, Miguel Sola Fernandez, Encarnación Soto Gomez and Francisco Murillo Mas
The Impact of Action Research in the Spanish Schools in the Post-Franco Era
Mary Brydon-Miller, Ismail Davids, Namrata Jaitli, M Brinton Lykes, Jean Schensul and Susan Williams
Popular Education and Action Research
Lew Zipin and Robert Hattam
Partnership Action Research for Social Justice: Politics, challenges and possibilities
Bridget Somekh and Susan E Noffke
Conclusions

'[I]t is undoubtedly an important and interesting volume' - ESCalate


'Action research continues to play a major role in democratising educational inquiry. This volume demonstrates why this is the case. It provides a set of articulate and sensitive analyses that deserve a wide readership.' - Michael W. Apple, John Bascom Professor of Education, University of Wisconsin, US; Madison and World Scholar and Professor of Educational Policy Studies, Institute of Education, University of London, UK


This book is ideal for our undergraduates looking to do Action Research as their final project. It is also useful for staff undertkaing a PgCE and completing an action project as part of this, or staff studying an EdD/similar. It is an accessable read, that is not too simplistic and is engaging. I recommend this title to anyone who needs to acquire a broad expanse of knowledge of different research methodolgies and methods in a readable form.

Mrs Elizabeth Roberts
Animal Production, Welfare and Veterinary Science, Harper Adams University
April 9, 2020

Fantastic breakdown, however may be too heavy for some students to digest.

Mr Daniel James Brown
Eary Years Education, St Vincent College
November 14, 2016

good for students who are studying for their BA in education

Ms Lorraine Hale
Hair and Beauty, Buxton and Leek College
December 6, 2014

Excellent for guidance throughout the thesis years!!!!

Mr Richard Tones
Education, Northumberland College
December 4, 2013

Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter One PDF

Chapter Two PDF


For instructors

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