100 Questions (and Answers) About Action Research

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Luke Duesbery. 100 Questions (and Answers) About Action Research

100 Questions (and Answers) About Action Research

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

Part 1 What Is Action Research?

Question 1 What Is This Book About?

Question 2 What Is Action Research, and Where Did It Come From?

Question 3 What Are the Key Features of Action Research I Should Remember?

Question 4 How Is Action Research Like and Unlike Other Research?

Question 5 How Do You Choose Your Action Research Style?

Question 6 Why Should I Bother With Action Research?

Question 7 How Is Action Research Cyclical?

Descriptions of Images and Figures

Question 8 How Much Time Does an Action Research Project Really Take?

Question 9 What Is an Action Research Disposition?

Question 10 Why Is Knowing Yourself Important While Doing Action Research?

Question 11 Do I Need to Know About Statistics for Action Research?

Part 2 Preparing for Action Research

Question 12 What’s the Difference Between Theory and Conceptual Frameworks in Action Research?

Question 13 How Does Action Research Fit in Education?

Question 14 How Does Action Research Fit in the Health Sciences?

Question 15 How Does Action Research Fit in the Behavioral and Social Sciences?

Question 16 How Does Action Research Fit in Business, Management,and Industry?

Question 17 How Can a Gender Theory Approach Impact Action Research?

Question 18 How Does Critical Race Theory Impact Action Research?

Question 19 What Is the Difference Between Exploratory and Confirmatory Action Research?

Question 20 What Are the Weaknesses of Action Research?

Part 3 Social Justice in Action Research

Question 21 How Can Action Research Be a Form of Social Justice?

Question 22 Why Is Ethics Important in Educational Research and Action Research in Particular? Three words: Respect, Beneficence, and Justice

Question 23 Do I Need to Get Some Kind of Approval for My Action Research?

Question 24 What Is Informed Consent, and Why Is It Important?

Question 25 Who Are the Stakeholders in Action Research, and Why Are They Important?

Question 26 Why Is It Important to Strive for Confidentiality and Anonymity?

Question 27 Should I Treat Children in Action Research Differently Than Adults?

Question 28 What Does a Sample Consent Letter Look Like?

Part 4 Research in Your Field

Question 29 What’s a Literature Review, and Do I Need One?

Question 30 What Are the Steps in Doing an Efficient Literature Review or Synthesis?

Question 31 Should I Read Action Research Articles?

Question 32 How Do I Evaluate the Articles I Find?

Question 33 How Do I Plan for My Action Research Project Before I Start?

Descriptions of Images and Figures

Part 5 Moving Your Research Forward

Question 34 How Do I Narrow Down My Topic?

Question 35 How Do I Make Sure My Research Is Rigorous?

Question 36 What Do Good Action Research Questions Look Like?

Question 37 What Is the Difference Between Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches to Action Research Design?

Question 38 What Are Common Qualitative Research Designs in Action Research?

Question 39 What Are Common Quantitative Research Designs in Action Research?

Question 40 What Are Some Better Quantitative Action Research Designs?

Question 41 What Are Some Common Mixed-Method Action Research Designs?

Question 42 Can a Program Evaluation Also Be Action Research?

Question 43 How Do I Choose My Action Research Design?

Part 6 Research Designs and Methods

Question 44 What Are Referents, and Which Work Best With Action Research?

Question 45 How Do I Randomly Choose My Participants?

Question 46 How Do I Not Randomly Choose My Participants?

Question 47 How Do I Create Groups?

Question 48 What Is a Case Study?

Question 49 When and How Would I Use Interviews?

Question 50 In General, What Are the Different Kinds of Interviews?

Question 51 How Do I Write Interview Questions and Interpret the Answers?

Question 52 Why Would I Use Focus Groups?

Question 53 How Do I Conduct Focus Groups?

Question 54 How Do Ethnographic Data Collection Methods Support Action Research?

Question 55 Can You Tell Me What I Need to Know About Surveys?

Question 56 How Do I Write Good Survey Questions?

Question 57 Can I Use Direct Observations in Action Research?

Question 58 What Are the Elements of Conducting Effective Observations?

Question 59 How Do Interval Observations Enrich Action Research?

Question 60 What Are Experimental Designs, and Are They Practical in Action Research?

Question 61 What Are Quasi-experimental Designs, and Where Do They Fit In?

Question 62 Can You Tell Me More About Action Research Designs That Use Groups?

Question 63 Do I Collect Data Once or a Bunch of Times?

Question 64 Are Single-Case and Single-Subject Designs Different?

Question 65 I Wrote My Question and Chose My Design. What Kind of Data Do I Need?

Part 7 Collecting and Analyzing Data

Question 66 How Are Descriptive and Inferential Statistics Different?

Question 67 What Is Visual Data Analysis?

Descriptions of Images and Figures

Question 68 What Does It Mean to Triangulate My Data?

Question 69 What’s the Big Deal About Reliability?

Question 70 What’s the Big Deal About Validity?

Question 71 Why Do I Need to Care About Internal Validity?

Question 72 What Kind of Threats to Internal Validity Are Common in Action Research?

Question 73 What Are Blocking Variables?

Question 74 What Are Ordinal, Interval, and Categorical Data Types, and Which Works Best With Action Research?

Question 75 Does Generalizability Matter in Action Research?

Part 8 Turning Data Into Information

Question 76 Now I Have All These Data. What Is the Best Way to Present My Results?

Question 77 How Do I Tell a Story With My Data?

Question 78 What Is the Difference Between the Mean and Median, and Why Is It Important?

Question 79 How Do Inferential Statistics Work?

Question 80 How Can I Use Inferential Statistics in My Action Research?

Question 81 What Is an Effect Size, and Who Is Cohen?

Question 82 How Do I Deal With Missing Data?

Question 83 What Are Some Good Action Research Analytic Tools I Can Use?

Question 84 Why Is Using Data Displays an Important Step?

Descriptions of Images and Figures

Question 85 What Are the Elements of a Good Table?

Question 86 What Are the Elements of a Good Graph?

Question 87 How Do I Evaluate the Quality of My Action Research Project?

Part 9 Action Research in the Bigger World

Question 88 Now That I Am Done, How Do I Add Value to the Field?

Question 89 What Professional Organizations Are Available to Give Me Support?

Question 90 Are Social Media Outlets Appropriate for Sharing My Action Research?

Question 91 Can I Formally Publish My Action Research Project?

Question 92 What Are the Most Helpful Action Research Journals?

Question 93 Should I Repeat (Replicate) My Action Research Project?

Part 10 Future Steps

Question 94 Is Action Research in Any Way Political? How Do I Navigate That?

Question 95 How Can I Create an Inquiry-Oriented Disposition in My Everyday Life?

Question 96 Why Develop an Action Research Community?

Question 97 Why Would I Want or Need to Write a Report on My Action Research?

Question 98 What Are the Key Elements of an Action Research Report?

Question 99 I Really Liked Learning About Action Research. What Is Next?

Question 100 What Other Books in This Series Might Interest Me, and How Do They Fit Together?

Appendix Important Action Research Literature

Index

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Q&A SAGE 100 Questions and Answers Series

For Todd Twyman, it was with his oldest son, Ian. Todd tells the story of how Ian came home in tears at the end of the first week of school because he was in a reading group that was studying letters (alphabetic awareness). At this point, Ian was already able to read chapter books, and while Todd is not a reading expert, he is an expert in research and assessment. At his first parent–teacher conference, Todd asked Ian’s teacher why he was not assigned to a more appropriate group. The response was that “he scored below grade level on the test of oral reading fluency [ORF].” An ORF test asks a child to read for a minute, and then the number of correct words read is counted. And while the placement decision made sense from a data standpoint, it was obviously not the appropriate placement. When Todd asked about Ian’s scores on the other four measures of reading (alphabetic awareness, phonemic segmentation, vocabulary, and comprehension), the teacher reported that Ian scored at the top of his class in all of those measures. Ian was a good reader, but maybe not a fast one. Really, what parent teaches their child to read fast? Unfortunately, Ian would have to wait until the next cycle of testing before being reassigned. After Todd’s partner talked him off the metaphorical ledge, he approached Ian’s teacher as both a father and action researcher. Look at the data, try something different, are you sure? The teacher was actually relieved to have support. This is what action research is about—openly thinking and making decisions with one another.

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Either during or after the action, you will again gather data. In the homework example, you were gathering data throughout the action. In other situations, you may find yourself having to collect data after some intervention or change.

Now that you have your data, you will need to analyze them. This is where you turn data into usable information. Data alone do not help decision making. Did it work for everyone? Are there some groups it did not work for? As you compile the information and reflect on the results you are naturally led to deeper questions. You are led back to the beginning to reshape your thoughts now that you’ve learned something.

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