Burns (2000) defined action research as “the application of fact-finding to practical problem-solving in a social situation with a view to improving the quality of action within it” (p.443). Action research is then a process in which “a „problem situation‟ is diagnosed, remedial action planned and implemented, and its effects monitored” (Burns, 2000, p.443). Thus, action research is not only an effective way to connect theory to teaching practice (Mertler, 2006) but it also provides opportunities for teachers to reflect and develop their teaching in a systematic way (Koshy, 2005). It is generally agreed that action research in
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education implies an orientation to engaging teachers in research, and professional development as well as a reflective way of teaching (Arhar et al. 2001; Lankshear & Knobel, 2004; Stringer, 2007). Arhar et al. (2001) define action research as a form of professional development and point out that during action research, research, practice, and development are not separated. In the present research project, action research was employed when aspects of New Zealand English language teachers‟ teaching beliefs and practices were applied in China‟s English language teaching contexts. The purpose was to help Chinese English language teachers to reflect upon their teaching and to improve their teaching practices by engaging in problem-solving research as practitioners.
According to the literature, three key elements characterize action research: ethical commitment, collaboration, and cycles of reflective and democratic principles (Arhar et al., 2001). Ethical commitment and the democratic principles require relationships in action research to be equal. That means, all people involved have the opportunity and power to make (share) decisions on the research questions, data generation, analysis, theorising and reporting. Having ethical relationships also involved the researcher addressing ethical issues of confidentiality, right of withdrawal and being aware of potential harm as discussed later in this chapter.
In this study, the researcher tended to make the major decisions about the actual research design as it was her doctoral research. However, the researcher followed
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the above principles in the process of action research. In terms of relationship, the researcher encouraged cooperative and harmonious relationships among participants. When conflicts occurred, they were solved openly and all participants were treated equally and accepted as they were. In terms of communication, the researcher listened to every participant attentively, and accepted what they said. In terms of participation, the researcher encouraged participants to be active participants and provided support as much as possible to ensure that all relevant participants were involved.
The second key element of action research is collaboration, with teams of researchers and practitioners working together (Burns, 2000). Cardno (2003) suggests that a collaborative endeavor at all stages is one of the guiding values of action research. She also suggests that all participants involved must be active, no matter whether the project is conducted by a group or individual. One of the important issues in collaboration is the role of researcher. It is not necessary for an action researcher to follow the rules that researchers must be neutral and objective (Arhar et al., 2001; Cardno, 2003; Stringer, 2007). The role of the researcher is to provide direction and leadership during the long-term and systematic research and development process. Stringer (2007) even calls the action researcher the research
facilitator. Arhar et al. (2003) define an action researcher‟s role in detail as “to
bring to light assumptions, beliefs, and actions; to examine them; and to bring their actions into closer alignment with their values” (p.31).
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In this study, the researcher fulfilled her role as mentioned above. Firstly, the researcher organized seminars about sociocultural learning theory before the practice of each cycle in the action research. The purpose of these seminars was to help teacher participants clarify their understanding about teaching as well as go beyond their own perceptions and interpretations about teaching.In this way, they could reflect on their own teaching practices with the help of a powerful education theory. Secondly, during teacher professional development meetings, the researcher tried to help teacher participants to clarify the changes that they wanted to make in the next cycle of the action research. Thirdly, the researcher maximized the benefits to the teacher participants and their students from action research. Whenever the researcher finished an interview with students, she fed back a summary of their responses to teacher participants in a timely way so as to build bridges between teacher and students as well as to enable more effective teaching and learning.
The third key element of action research is that it proceeds in a cyclic mode and each cycle repeats a series of steps comprising action and research (Cardno, 2003), with an emphasis on reflection. According to the literature (Cohen et al.,2003), each cycle involves four steps including planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. In the first step of planning, researchers and practitioners identify problems, dilemmas or ambiguities that arise from the real world and formulate the research question (Burns, 1999; Burns, 2000; Kember &Kelly, 1993). Arhar et al. (2001) asserted that action researchers begin with knowing exactly what they
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want to study and how to study, however, they enter with vague or general questions because “questions evolve over time” (p.89). Therefore, the researchers are able to think about and refine research questions as the research proceeds. In other words, action researchers and practitioners have to identify and establish some research questions to address their problems as well as guide their research, on one hand, and use their experience or some relevant educational knowledge from literature to recognize different dimensions and aspects of their research problems so as to refine their research questions further.
The second step in the action research cycle is the action. In this step, teacher participants take steps to implement their new teaching activities based on their own design, that is, to implement changes. The third step in the cycle, researchers collect and analyze the data about the effects of changes that teachers make.
In this study, the changes that teacher participants made in their teaching were determined by teacher participants and the new teaching activities were designed by the joint efforts of teacher participants and the researcher. Each change was based on the problems identified and data generated in the previous cycle. Whenever, the teacher participants implemented their new teaching, the researcher observed them. All the new teachings were video-taped and the researcher took field notes to supplement the recordings, which enabled the researcher to study the effects of the changes more effectively and comprehensively. In addition, individual teacher interviews and group student interview were conducted in each
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cycle after the classroom observations. The multiple data sources enhanced the quality and trustworthiness of the observing stage.
The last step in the action research cycle involves critical reflections on what has happened and how effective the changes have been. According to Kember and Kelly (1993), critical reflection can take place both in isolation and within small groups. In this research, reflection happened among teachers and researcher during discussion and sharing different ideas as well as the responses from students in the meetings. The purpose of these discussions was to generate more innovative ideas and suggestions. Finally, as a result of the former stage, for the problems and dilemmas identified, new research question were formulated, and another action research cycle was started.