https://www.jeanmcniff.com/ar-booklet.asp

Jean McNiff’s Action Research for Professional Development

I found this guide very easy to read and really informative. It neatly broke down what Action research is. The main thing I need to consider is that action research is a self reflective process, a tool to evaluate your teaching and improve your work.

..the need for justice and democracy, the right of all people to speak and be heard, the right of each individual to show how and why they have given extra attention to their learning in order to improve their work, the deep need to experience truth and beauty in our personal and professional lives.

Jean McNiff

Those words really spoke to me. I feel like those things are at the heart of what I want to explore. I don’t want to accept the hierarchical norms that the university presents me with. They don’t serve me well, I don’t think the technical voice is valued enough. If the hierarchies don’t serve me well, it probably means that they don’t serve students well either. As identity and personality comes into so much of what we do as educators, it cant help affect both our personal and professional lives, it helps me see a greater purpose to what I am doing, it validates my thought process and motivations.

Action Research is looking at your own work and examining it- is it as you would like it to be?

Its open ended

Its developmental, it doesn’t need to solve everything

Idea -> following through -> seeing how it goes -> checking it’s in line with your wishes

Reading this made the daunting process of research that little bit more accessible. I need to keep reminding myself of these principles when I find myself down rabbit holes of reading and scattered ideas.

file:///C:/Users/lcurran/Downloads/Converse%20%20Presser%202011%20(1).pdf

Converse, J. M., & Presser, S. (1986). Survey questions. SAGE Publications, Inc. https://www.doi.org/10.4135/9781412986045

I read this excerpt about creating survey questionnaires. It was actually quite a difficult read. I naively didn’t realise how much work went into creating surveys and the formulations of questions. It sort of stalled my progress… I’m an over thinker anyway and so acutely aware of how little time I have to do this project, it kind of freaked me out how much thought needs to go into a question and just how much can go wrong! I had started to jot down questions off the top of my head…I will keep refining and test them out/get feedback from a member of my team.

Positives of using a survey:

Flexibility of participation- can do at a time that suits the recipient

If done well can be coded easily and make getting results easier

Can get a lot of data once set up

Can give clear and specific research answers

Negatives:

Pre-testing phase can mean long set up time

Room for misinterpretation/misunderstandings- no opportunity to clarify

Order and variation can influence outcome of survey

Post Session Thoughts

I need to be aware of why I would want to use a survey, what do I want to do with the findings. Do I want to use it as a tool to measure something in a numerical way? Probably not. I’m more interested in language and words/phrases that may come up and the nuances of experience.

However I do like the idea that I could use the networks that I am already part of, that are quite wide reaching and accessible to potentially gauge opinions- and a survey could be a good way to do that. If I was to use this method, I would not want to use this method alone. I want to ask students, and I feel like they are survey-d out. Just generally speaking to my YR2 students in the classroom they said they are tired of all the surveys the university sends out, there are so many and wouldn’t really be inspired to do any more. This lead me to think that students may not be very responsive to another survey. I’m beginning to think something like a focus group could be more suitable.

For the staff survey I’m looking into what survey platforms are best- survey monkey, office 365 survey, survio. I need to choose the most accessible one so that I don’t waste time figuring out how to use them. I have not carried out a survey like this before.

file:///C:/Users/lcurran/Downloads/Vaughn%20et%20al.%202013%20(2).pdf

Vaughn et al. (2013) Why Use Focus Group Interviews in Educational and Psychological Research? In: Focus Group Interviews in Education and Psychology, Sage Publications

Focus groups seem to be a really good way to bring people together and find out more about their experiences. From the text there are 5 main advantages to using a focus group :

synergism snowballing stimulation security spontaneity

All encourage discussion and lead to more genuine responses. Focus groups are also a good way of getting answers to questions in a relatively short space of time.

However, there are some pitfalls to keep in mind…

They can be tricky to organise, setting a time and date that is suitable for everyone. Finding and setting up a room with the right ambiance so that you minimise the power etc. Do you moderate yourself or do you not? If I do moderate and the students know me is that a bad thing? We will already have an established rapport so surely that is a positive thing, but then will that relationship interfere. If I make it explicit that I am positioned as a researcher in the room, not as a technician etc.- will this be enough to counterbalance that?

How is it possible to stay a neutral facilitator- how does your positionality not always come into it? Do you use incentives for subjects to participate? If you do, how do you negate performativity because of the incentives? How do you stop participants from feeling peer pressure and speaking up if they have other views to the majority.

I’m a bit nervous about a lack of experience in facilitating these kinds of things. I suppose active listening will be key, and recognising when and if the conversation needs a stimulus and when to sit back. My nightmare would be that I get all the students in the room and no-one says much! To combat this I was thinking of asking them to bring an image of work that has already been assessed and asking them to start by talking about their experience of that, then from that facilitate further exploration of the topics I hope to cover. I also have the fall back position of asking about the resource I want to make that could feed into the marking process. Getting the student perspective on that is valuable. But maybe I’m trying to cram in too much?