Action Research

Jean McNiff is Professor of Educational Research at York St John University, UK. She is also a Visiting Professor at UiT the Arctic University of Norway, and at the Beijing Normal University and Ningxia Teachers' University, People's Republic of China. Jean took early retirement from her position as deputy head teacher of a large secondary school in Dorset, UK. She went into business for herself, and developed her writing. Her textbooks on action research and professional education are now used internationally on workplace-based professional education courses and on higher degree courses. Jean provides interdisciplinary consultancy work to institutions around the world where she gives lectures and conducts workshops on planning, doing and writing action research. Jean aims to contribute to personal and social betterment through educational research. She encourages everyone to make their stories public in the form of their personal and collaborative theories of practice; and she firmly believes that each individual is able to contribute to social and planetary wellbeing by explaining how they hold themselves accountable for what they do. In this way she links education with moral accountability. She tries to bring the university to everyday contexts, and everyday contexts into the university, for it is only by involving everyone, she feels, that the world will become a better place for us all.

PART ONE: BACKGROUNDS AND CONTEXTS Background to Our Research: Reasons and Purposes What Are Our Concerns? Contexts of Our Research Why Are We Concerned? Looking for Data What Experiences Can We Describe to Show Why We Are Concerned? PART TWO: GATHERING DATA AND GENERATING EVIDENCE Monitoring Practice and Gathering Data What Kind of Data Will We Gather to Show the Situation as It Unfolds Interpreting Data and Generating Evidence in Relation to Living Critical Standards of Judgement How Do We Explain Our Educational Influences in Learning? PART THREE: ESTABLISHING VALIDITY AND LEGITIMACY Validity, Legitimacy and Moral Authority How Do We Show that Any Conclusions We Come To Are Reasonably Fair and Accurate? The Potential Significance of Our Research How Do We Show the Potential Significance of Our Research? PART FOUR: IMPLICATIONS, EVALUATIONS AND DISSEMINATION Case Studies How Do We Show the Implications of Our Research? Evaluating the Account of Our Research How Do We Evaluate the Evidence-Based Account of Our Learning? PART FIVE: TESTING OUR CLAIMS TO EDUCATIONAL KNOWLEDGE Into New Research How Do We Modify Our Concerns, Ideas and Practices in the Light of Our Evaluations?