SAGE was founded in 1965 by Sara Miller McCune to support the dissemination of usable knowledge by publishing innovative and high-quality research and teaching content. Today, we publish more than 750 journals, including those of more than 300 learned societies, more than 800 new books per year, and a growing range of library products including archives, data, case studies, reports, conference highlights, and video. SAGE remains majority-owned by our founder, and on her passing will become owned by a charitable trust that secures our continued independence.
Los Angeles | London | Washington DC | New Delhi | Singapore
Jean McNiff 2014
First published 2014
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014938626
British Library Cataloguing in Publication data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-4462-9456-7
ISBN 978-1-4462-9457-4 (pbk)
SAGE Publications Ltd
1 Olivers Yard
55 City Road
London EC1Y 1SP
SAGE Publications Inc.
2455 Teller Road
Thousand Oaks, California 91320
SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd
B 1/I 1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area
Mathura Road
New Delhi 110 044
SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd
3 Church Street
#10-04 Samsung Hub
Singapore 049483
Editor: Katie Metzler
Assistant editor: Lily Mehrbod
Production editor: Ian Antcliff
Copyeditor: Kate Harrison
Proofreader: Clare Weaver
Marketing manager: Sally Ransom
Cover design: Shaun Mercier
Typeset by: C&M Digitals (P) Ltd, Chennai, India
Printed in Great Britain by Henry Ling Limited at The Dorset Press, Dorchester, DT1 1HD
At SAGE we take sustainability seriously. Most of our products are printed in the UK using FSC papers and boards. When we print overseas we ensure sustainable papers are used as measured by the Egmont grading system. We undertake an annual audit to monitor our sustainability.
List of Tables
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Many people are involved in the writing of a text, in many different ways. This has been the case for this book, and thanks are owed to the following colleagues:
All who have contributed case study material, and for your very helpful comments on the text, in whole or in part. Your names appear on the following Contributors pages, with thanks for your hard work.
Katie Metzler, my editor at Sage: thank you for your commitment to the project and for making it happen.
Peter McDonnell: thanks for more than I can say, especially the abundance of good Irish stories.
Thank you also to Jaber Al-Asheeri, from the National Institute for Industrial Training, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain. I explained to him that I always like to include a passage from scripture at the beginning of a book, and was searching the Qurn for a passage to communicate the idea that change has to start from within. He drew my attention to the following passage:
For him are angels ranged before him and behind him who guard him by Allahs command. Lo! Allah changeth not the condition of a folk until they first change that which is in their hearts. (Sra Ar-Rad, 13: 11)
Similarly, from the Holy Bible:
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans, 12: 2)
Thanks also to
Sally Aston
Pip Bruce Ferguson
Jenny Carpenter
Mark Cordery
Jane L.Crane
Odd Edvardsen
John Elliott
Jean Flood
Karen Rut Gsladttir
Chris Glavey
Steve Gordon
Dot Jackson
Maria James
Anne-Gerd Karlsen
Adrian Klos
Kjartan Kversy
Lsma Latsone
Clare Lawrence
Willem Louw
Karen McArdle
Steve Mee
Rita Moustakim
Bente Norbye
Linda Pavitola
Julie Pearson
Tamie Pratt-Fartro
Peter Raymond
Jovita Ross-Gordon
Margaret Riel
Joseph M.Shosh
Alex Sinclair
Anne-Lise Thoresen
Margareta Trnqvist
Jonathan Vincent
About the Author
Jean McNiff is Professor of Educational Research at York St John University, UK. She is also a Visiting Professor at UiT, the Arctic University of Norway; at Oslo and Akershus University College, Norway; and at the Beijing Normal University and Ningxia Teachers University, Peoples Republic of China.
Jean took early retirement from her position as deputy head teacher of a large secondary school in Dorset, UK. She went into business for herself, and developed her writing. Her textbooks on action research and professional education are now used internationally on workplace-based professional education courses and on higher degree courses. Jean provides interdisciplinary consultancy work to institutions around the world where she gives lectures and conducts workshops on planning, doing and writing action research.
Jean aims to contribute to personal and social betterment through educational research. She encourages everyone to make their stories public in the form of their personal and collaborative theories of practice; and she firmly believes that each individual is able to contribute to social and planetary wellbeing by explaining how they hold themselves accountable for what they do. In this way she links education with moral accountability. She tries to bring the university to everyday contexts, and everyday contexts into the university, for it is only by involving everyone, she feels, that the world will become a better place for us all.
Visit Jean at
Most recent publications:
McNiff, J. (2013) Action Research: Principles and Practice (3rd edition). Abingdon, Routledge.
McNiff, J. (2013) Becoming cosmopolitan and other dilemmas of internationalisation: reflections from the Gulf States, Cambridge Journal of Education, Vol. 43, No. 4: 5015015. Available at http://dx/doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2013.831033
Introduction
This book is about writing action research and doing action research. It is written for practitioner researchers studying for masters and doctoral degrees, lecturers, and early career and more advanced researchers who wish to do action research and write books and journal articles from the experience. It may appeal also to those working in research traditions other than action research who wish to use some of its principles, practices and methods; and for students on, say, qualitative programmes who wish to incorporate action research into a mixed methodologies approach. To meet the needs of these practitioners the book outlines the principles, practices and methods of action research, and explains how to communicate understandings of its nature and uses through texts. The book is not only a how to book; it is also about showing what action research means to different people in different research settings. It shows how you can interweave all aspects of your research and writing practice into a seamless communicative whole where each informs and strengthens the other.
