I have learned that Action Research can be a powerful tool in analyzing and changing situations in your school. It is a unique way to look at things from the perspective of those involved in any given situation. It is not just posing a question and looking to outsiders to find solutions, it is posing a question and finding your own solution that works best for your unique situation. It involves working together with the people that are directly involved in making changes necessary to carry out the solution to your research. It allows principals and teachers to study ways to make changes to better your school. It also allows teachers and administrators to have an open dialogue about issues relevant to your situation and to learn from each other and from others research as well. The benefits of conducting action research seem quite obvious after reading about it. Action research involves focusing on specific problems related to your situation. It takes into account your specific school, teachers, students and community and focuses on changing the situation based on your specific situation. It is not based on a generic, outsider’s response to similar situations but rather a very specific response to a specific situation where the control and direction of research is in the hands of those that know the situation and possible solutions for their situation best.
I believe that action research can be used to discover the reasons for teacher stress in today’s schools. It is a good method to use because all buildings are unique, and what might be a stress in some instances may not be relevant to others. Using action research can help to identify the top reasons for teacher stress that are unique to each campus. This research can not only identify causes of stress but will hopefully generate some real solutions that could help alleviate these stresses from the people who are actually experiencing it.
Educational leaders can use blogs to determine teacher’s true thoughts about situations without worrying about being reprimanded for their feelings or ideas. It is a good way to get a lot of information from people that are directly affected by a situation in a short amount of time. It also allows people to be part of a conversation that can generate ideas for solutions and to learn from others experiences or successes.
For those of you who visit this blog, I would love to hear the top three stresses you experience as a classroom teacher, the grade that you teach, the socioeconomic area that you teach in, and ideas about how those stresses could be alleviated.
