Action Research

Documenting the Journey of Becoming a Teacher through Self-Study

1 Project Overview

1.1 The critical question(s) of my action research project:

1.2 The setting for this action research project:

  • brief description of community, school (class, race, mission, values, urban/rural);
  • brief description of participants;
  • brief description of the classroom where the action research project will take place;
  • how this context matters to the study;
  • my comfort level with this context.

1.3 The story behind this action research project:

  • why I am interested in this area;
  • what my own experiences are with this area;
  • how my own values, beliefs, and sense of what “good teaching” is represented in this action research project;
  • what my biases are;
  • how my position as a student teacher influences the project;
  • how this information matters to the study.

1.4 The vision I have of myself as a teacher by the end of this project:

1.5 The specific steps I plan to take towards becoming this teacher:

1.6 Timeline for the project (the cycle to be used in self-analysis):

1.7 A list of common themes in the literature regarding development in this area:

1.8 Reference List for the action research project:

2 Methodology

2.1 How I will document my journey to become a teacher:

  • observations described;
  • interviews described;
  • documents and artifacts to be collected.

2.2 Description of Teacher-Researcher Notebook (personal journal):

  • how it will be organized;
  • when entries will be made;
  • timeline of planned critical analysis points;
  • appendices (what additional data I will collect to give context to my journal entries).

2.3 How I will include others in the interpretation of my journey to become a teacher:

  • professional colleagues;
  • critical colleague;
  • students.

2.4 Brief statements of how the data and documents will be analyzed:

  • analyze (parts): how the categories of data and documents will be analyzed;
  • synthesize (whole): how all of the data and documents will be scrutinized;
  • deconstruct (assumptions): what assumptions have been made and what are “other” possible interpretations.

2.5 How this design deliberately plans for trustworthiness:

2.6 How I am gaining appropriate permissions:

2.7 Possible interruptions, distractions, and difficulties and the plan for dealing with these:

3.0 Conclusions and Possibilities:

3.1 Statement of how I will share what I have learned:

  • written document
  • presentation

3.2 What actions I expect/hope to be the result of my action research project:

Becoming a Teacher Through Action Research, Second Edition © 2010 Routledge / Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.