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| Traditional |
The mere presence
of the word "research" many times conjures thoughts and notions of
prior tasks embraced much in the same manner as a crossing of the Sahara. Too
many times our research delivered nothing more than a regurgitation of facts, figures,
and a bar graph or two. There was what was referred to as a solution, albeit
nicely camouflaged somewhere just this side of the annotations. This solution
was designed and manufactured by an incredibly well qualified professional whose
calling in life was to find resolutions that would cure what ailed you. No
matter how the proximity of similar facts fell. Did it matter that there was
little or no commonality with many or most of the issues, key or otherwise?
Traditional research tells us no, it really doesn’t matter, take two pills and don’t
call us in the morning. The theoretical world of the ivory towers has spoken.
Action research provides a completely different
perspective and opportunity to resolve the problem in a much more effective,
long term manner and delivers additional benefits that the traditional methods
simply cannot. The principal’s inquiry
begins the process of personal involvement with the community directly impacted
by the issue by gathering data and interpretation of that data. These same
people become collaborators and find themselves seeking remedies and learning
more about the problem itself. This community finds itself committing to the
solution based simply on the gained knowledge and the entailing learning process.
Some of the additional benefits include strengthening relationships with your
peers, discovering other opportunities for action research, and the exposure of
the process to others. No matter the
solution or how effective it may be, the single most important aspect is
reflection. Without reflection, your solution could very well be a band aid on
a broken bone. Reflection inherently provides the opportunity for adjustments
and whatever tweaks found to be necessary. Reflection also produces monitoring
for the long term. The world of education will forever be evolving, so must be
our solutions as well.
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