Prior to this course, I honestly did not know what action research was; yet I would see various forms of it on my campus. What really stood out to me were the two paradigm shifts in educational research over the past few decades. Being new to the administration side of education, it would seem appropriate to bring in an "outside researcher" to help better the school. However, after reading the Dana text, who knows a school better than the people who work there? As I was reading the Dana text, I came across the term “Professional Learning Committee” and I told myself, “Hey! We have PLCs on our campus!” Little did I know that a PLC could be a form of an action research team. As demanding as an action research project can be, I learned from the text how to implement one without it appearing to be a drastic schedule change. The author talked about how he had to report to the doctor about how many times a week he had exercised and how it was eventually became a part of his weekly schedule (Dana, 15.) In the same way, if we want our school to remain “healthy” then it is up to us to use action research to help us for our own good.
Dana, N. F. (2009). Administrator Inquiry Defined. Leading with passion and knowledge: the principal as action researcher (p. 15). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press, a Joint Publication with the American Association of School Administrators.
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