action research studies encompass any systematic inquiries

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9 Research Design: Action Research

• Published: July 2023
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Action research is an exciting research design that leads to social and systems change. In this chapter, the authors describe action research, including how it differs from other approaches, along with a detailed explanation of the action research process, including planning, implementing, observing, reflecting, and sharing results. The authors highlight a case study delineating the iterative process within the school counseling field to provide readers with knowledge of the action research process. Additionally, authors share examples of current school counseling research to bring action research to life. School counselors and SCEs will understand how to utilize action research across the educational ecosystems to ignite change.

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Sustainable Development and Participatory Action Research: A Systematic Review

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• Published: 10 June 2020
• Volume 34 , pages 291–306, ( 2021 )

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• Jennifer Keahey   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8874-4618 1  

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Sustainable development scholars are employing participatory action research to establish platforms for collaborative inquiry and knowledge integration. While this action research tradition supports the revitalization of scholarly influence in sustainability policy and practice, its recent expansion into new topics and disciplines suggests the need for broad-based evaluation. To fulfill this task, I conduct a systematic review of the last decade of peer-reviewed research. The results of this study advance scholarly knowledge in three critical ways. By mapping the field, I identify global patterns of engagement and assemble an interdisciplinary toolbox of methods for research and action. By interrogating descriptions of methodology and lessons learned, I uncover key issues with research and practice, including threats to methodological integrity. By connecting empirical insights with the discourse on ethics, I clarify research standards and suggest strategies for improving engagement. This article brings coherence to an emergent and potentially transformative field that is located at the crossroads of sustainability and participation.

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Sociology for sustainability science

Pathways from research to sustainable development: Insights from ten research projects in sustainability and resilience

Testing the quality of transformative science methods: the example of the Human Scale Development approach

Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.

The EBSCO Host search was limited to academic databases not included in Proquest.

Spreadsheets captured information on: (1) regions and topics; (2) lead author affiliations; (3) co-authorship and interdisciplinarity; (4) research methods and disciplines; (5) PAR methodology; and (6) lessons learned.

Nearly all Oceanic studies were conducted in Australia, with the remainder in New Zealand.

The United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

In accordance with the standards set forth by Stember ( 1991 ), cross-disciplinary involves perceiving one discipline through the lens of another; multidisciplinary denotes scholars from different disciplines who are in collaboration; interdisciplinary signals the integration of two or more disciplinary knowledge systems; and transdisciplinary indicates the rise of a new discipline that has synthesized different disciplinary knowledges into a unified intellectual framework.

Only 15% of the published studies were single authored and 55% had three or more authors.

Nearly one fourth of the institutional affiliation names denoted either a transdisciplinary orientation or combined major branches of knowledge.

See Duda et al. 2014 for an informative description of this emerging practice.

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Keahey, J. Sustainable Development and Participatory Action Research: A Systematic Review. Syst Pract Action Res 34 , 291–306 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11213-020-09535-8

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Action research.

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What is Action Research?

Action research involves a systematic process of examining the evidence. The results of this type of research are practical, relevant, and can inform theory. Action research is different than other forms of research as there is less concern for universality of findings, and more value is placed on the relevance of the findings to the researcher and the local collaborators.

Riel, M. (2020). Understanding action research. Center For Collaborative Action Research, Pepperdine University.  Retrieved January 31, 2021 from the Center for Collaborative Action Research.  https://www.actionresearchtutorials.org/  

-----------------------------------

The short video below by John Spencer provides a quick overview of Action Research.

How is Action Research different?

This chart demonstrates the difference between traditional research and action research. Traditional research is a means to an end - the conclusion. They start with a theory, statistical analysis is critical and the researcher does not insert herself into the research.

Action research is often practiced by practitioners like teachers and librarians who remain in the middle of the research process. They are looking for ways to improve the specific situation for their clientele or students. Statistics may be collected but they are not the point of the research.

Adapted from: Mc Millan, J. H. & Wergin. J. F. (1998). Understanding and evaluating educational research. Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Teacher Action Research

According to Paul Gorski, Action Research for educators meets the following qualifications:

• a non-traditional and community-based form of educational evaluation;
• carried out by educators, not outside researchers or evaluators;
• focused on improving teaching and learning, but also social and environmental factors that affect the nature and success of teaching and learning;
• formative, not summative--an on-going process of evaluation, recommendation, practice, reflection, and reevaluation; and
• change-oriented, and undertaken with the assumption that change is needed in a given context

Gorski, P. C. (1995-2018). Teacher Action Research . Critical Multicultural Pavilion. Retrieved October 6, 2018 from https://www.edchange.org/multicultural/tar.html

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