Action Research: Week 1 What I Am Learning

I have to admit that it has been difficult wrapping my brain around the concept of Action Research. Maybe it's because of the messages I've grown up with that told me that I needed someone on the "outside"to educate me and give me solutions because they are "experts" and I'm not. Take weight loss sytems for instance, I've probably spent enough money going to weekly meetings for someone else to weigh me, hand me a food guide, plan my meals, and keep weekly data on my weight loss (or gains) to pay off my son's student loans. That's not to say that using an "outside" source to manage my weight was wrong, it's just that I didn't know that I could have had the same results collaborating with others and using the action research process I am learning about this week in my Lamar Research class.

Unlike traditional research pardigms of the past, action research encourages practitioners to engage in solution-seeking behaviors to "facilitate change based on the knowledge they generate" (Dana, 2009, p. 5). All action research begins with what Dana calls "wonderings" or "inquiries." This termanology in and of itself is freeing to me because I am by nature an inquisitive person. For me asking question is like a loose thread that you pull that seems to have no end. It's not important whether or not I get the answers right away, it's the freedom to wonder and to ask "what if?" It's like looking up at the clouds and finding an animal shape and just as soon as I point it out to someone and we share the "Aha!" moment...it transforms into something else. What I am learning about Action Research is that it is nothing like the research projects in my past, but will tap into my curious nature and guide me on a systemic journey to explore areas as an adminstrator I would like to see changed in my school.