ACTION RESEARCH

Action research refers to the process of me, an administrator, studying my daily administrative practices in an effort to be more effecient, effective, or simply better. Once these practices are studied, then I, the administrator, take action for change based on the results of my desired research. This is why, as educators, we often study ‘best practices’ within our own arenas. After these studies, we then determine what we can use, from the studied information, to make ourselves better, more efficient, and maximizing our growth. Action research is done from within the research community which is a direct contradiction to Traditional Research which is done from outside the research community. With action research, I would perform a study based on what I do and practice as an administrator. This, in turn, makes the research more realistic for me and I become a collaborator within my own research by being an investigator of my own problems and situations. There is no better collaborator, with regard to critiquing my situation, than me because I can be 100% honest with myself. (Honesty is a major requirement within action research.) As an active participant in my research process, I too will be more willing to accept the changes that need to be made for the betterment of my administrative practice.