The SAGE Handbook of Educational Action Research

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).

Table of Contents:
Introduction - Susan E. Noffke and Bridget Somekh Revisiting the Professional, Personal and Political Dimensions of Action Research - Susan E. Noffke PART ONE: ACTION RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: DIVERSITY OF RATIONALES AND PRACTICES Introduction to Part I Building Educational Theory through Action Research - John Elliott Teacher Research as Stance - Marilyn Cochran-Smith and Susan L Lytle Dialogic Inquiry as Collaborative Action Research - Gordon Wells Action Research and the Personal Turn - Sandra Hollingsworth, Anthony Cody, Mary Dybdahl, Leslie Turner Minarik, Jennifer Davis-Smallwood and Karen Manheim Teel Educational Action Research: A critical approach - Wilfred Carr and Stephen Kemmis Action Research for/as/Mindful of Social Justice - Morwenna Griffiths PART TWO: PROFESSIONAL: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION, STAFF DEVELOPMENT, AND THE STATUS OF EDUCATORS Introduction to Part II A School District-Based Action Research Program in the United States - Cathy Caro-Bruce, Mary Klehr, Ken Zeichner and Ana Maria Sierra Piedrahita Using Action Research to Support Students with Special Educational Needs - Christine O′Hanlon Renegotiating Knowledge Relationships in Schools - Chris Bigum and Leonie Rowan Lesson Study as Action Research - Catherine Lewis, Rebecca Perry and Shelley Friedkin Professional Development, Teacher Voice and Knowledge Production Practitioner Action Research and Educational Leadership - Gary L Anderson and Kathryn Herr Educational Action Research as a Paradigm for Change - Shoshana Keiny and Lily Orland-Barak Practitioner Action Research: Building and Sustaining Success Through Networked Learning Communities - Christopher Day and Andrew Townsend Action Research and Educational Change: Teachers as Innovators - Lesley Saunders and Bridget Somekh A School System Takes on Exhibitions through Teacher Action Research - Marie Brennan Action Research, Professional Development and Systemic Reform - Herbert Altrichter and Peter Posch Sustaining the Next Generation of Teacher-Researchers to Work for Social Justice - Barbara Comber and Barbara Kamler Co-operative Change Management through Practitioner Inquiry - Susan Groundwater-Smith PART THREE: PERSONAL: SELF-AWARENESS, DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY Introduction to Part III Ethics and the ′Personal′ in Action Research - Jane Zeni Writing to Learn: A process for the Curious - Mary Louise Holly From Passionate Enquiry to Loving Detachment: One researcher′s Methodological Journey - Marion Dadds The Interconnections between Narrative Inquiry and Action Research - Debbie Pushor and D Jean Clandinin Capabilities, Flourishing and the Normative Purposes of Action Research - Melanie Walker Demonstrating Quality in Educational Research for Social Accountability - Jean McNiff and Jack Whitehead Action Research and Pedagogy as Science of the Child′s Upbringing - Petra Ponte and Jan Ax Developing Relationships, Developing the Self: Buddhism and Action Research - Richard Winter Teaching and Cultural Difference: Exploring the potential for a psychoanalytically informed action research - Terrance Carson Complexity Theory and Action Research - Dennis Sumara and Brent Davis Agency through Action Research: Constructing Active Identities from Theoretical Models and Metaphors - Bridget Somekh Existentialism and Action Research - Allan Feldman PART FOUR: POLITICAL: POPULAR KNOWLEDGE, DIFFERENCE, AND FRAMEWORKS FOR CHANGE Introduction to Part IV Elbows Out, Arms Linked: Claiming spaces for feminisms and gender equity in educational action research - Patricia Maguire and Britt-Marie Berge Students′ Participation in School Change: Action research on the ground - Pat Thomson and Helen Gunter Community Action and Agency in the Education of Urban Youth - Peter C Murrell Jnr. Professional Development, Teacher Voice and Knowledge Production Social-Political Theory in Working with Teachers for Social Justice Schooling - Marie Brennan and Susan E Noffke Rethinking Action Research: Commonsense and Relations of Freedom - Andrew Gitlin Participatory Action Research in Latin American Education: A road map to a different part of the world - Eduardo Flores-Kastanis, Juny Montoya-Vargas and Daniel H Suárez Teacher Development and Political Transformation: Reflections from the South African experience - Maureen Robinson and Crain Soudien The Impact of Action Research in the Spanish Schools in the Post-Franco Era - Ángel I Pérez Gómez, Miguel Sola Fernandez, Encarnación Soto Gomez and Francisco Murillo Mas Popular Education and Action Research - Mary Brydon-Miller, Ismail Davids, Namrata Jaitli, M Brinton Lykes, Jean Schensul and Susan Williams Partnership Action Research for Social Justice: Politics, challenges and possibilities - Lew Zipin and Robert Hattam Conclusions - Bridget Somekh and Susan E Noffke

About the Author :
I have done historical/conceptual work in social studies as well as some analysis of my own practice as a social studies teacher educator, both of these with a particular eye toward issues of anti-racist education. I have recently completed a number of publications reflecting these broad research interests. A natural outgrowth of both the conceptual and field studies has been on the need for a more adequate framework for curriculum history and curriculum development (including that for teacher education) to reflect the diverse segment of American education. I have recently published on participatory action research and worked to facilitate understanding of diversity among pre-service teachers through social and community inquiry assignments. Bridget Somekh is based at Manchester Metropolitan University as well as University of Canterbury.

Review :
′[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