1. Session 7.2
Action Research
行动研究
主讲人：杨舒涵

2. Contents 内 容 1. What is Action Research? 对行动研究的认识
2. Two Kinds of Action Research
行动研究的两种类型
3. What Action Research Can Do?
行动研究的用途

3. Contents 内 容 4. The Action Research Approach to Data 行动研究收集数据的方法
5. Action Research and the Qualitative Tradition
行动研究和质性研究的渊源

4. 1. What is Action Research?
Action research reflects neither of the premises（前提） that only people with years of training, employed by universities, research corporations, or government agencies can conduct research, nor that research must always be nonpartisan（无党派的）, serving no particular cause.
“Research is a frame of mind——a perspective people take toward objects and activities. Outside the academy, people in the “real world” also can conduct research——research that is practical, directed at their own concerns and, for those who wish, a tool to bring about social change.” (Bogdan & Biklen, 2006)

5. 2. Two Kinds of Action Research
(1) participatory action research
参与式行动研究
Participants in a program or institutions together design and implement a research project in order to make recommendations for changing practice.
A case from a high school in US

6. The case from a high school in US
Description 1
At a fall meeting of a high school, parents from most of the different racial and ethnic groups the school serves complained about the mathematics program. The organized concern was sparked by the widespread low or failing scores on the statewide mathematics exams the previous spring.

7. The case from a high school in US
Description 2
A task force formed, consisting of two teachers, four parents, and a student. The committee assumed that there was no single mathematics problem at high school, that how the problem was defined would depend on who you were — student, teacher, parent — and the nature of your involvement with the mathematics program. So the committee planned to interview all of the parties — students, teachers, parents, and administrators.

8. The case from a high school in US
Description 3
The Teacher reported back to the committee that the math teachers did not feel that they could speak freely to parents, so three graduate students who was on the committee, were recruited to help with the interviewing.
The committee found that teachers, parents, and students often agreed on what the problem was, although they proposed different remedies(解决方案). There was also agreement that the problems with math were not just about math but reflected the school culture as a whole.

9. The case from a high school in US
Discussion
The parents wanted to make sure their voices were heard.
The committee had a multiracial makeup.
The purpose of the study was twofold. First, it was to find out why so many people were troubled about students’ performance in mathematics. The second purpose was for a group of people involved in the school to take an activist stance（立场）, to “do something” about the problem.

10. 2. Two Kinds of Action Research
(2) political action research
关于个人或团体利益的行动研究
Citizens do research to work for social change
with regard to issues of power.
Case：Experience of Lois Gibbs（Antler & Biklen, 1990）

11. The Case of Lois Gibbs
Description
The lady Lois Gibbs, was worried about the illness of her son at a Elementary School, which a company had used for toxic(有毒的) waste disposal（废弃物）. She interviewed neighborhood residents and kept a record of her observations of patterns of illness in families. Her research propelled（推动） other housewives who were worried about their families’ health problems to start a Homeowner’s Association. Her research identified that the toxin-related illnesses clustered（聚集）around homes build on old drainage（排水系统） areas and ditches（沟渠） that radiated（辐射） out from the Canal（管道）. The Homeowners’ Association was able to persuade the state to buy out the families who had been affected.

12. The Case of Lois Gibbs Discussion
The research was undertaken in order precipitate(突如其来的) change on some particular issue.
Action researcher always assume that the research will reflect their own values.
This research has political consequences.
Is action research objective? Why or why not?

13. 3. What Action Research can Do?
(1) The systematic collection of information can help
identify people and institutions that make the lives of
particular groups of people intolerable.
Critics of services for people with retardation
（滞后） have often noted that institutions are built
in isolated spots away from communities to limit
public access to them.

14. 3. What Action Research can Do?
(2) It can provide us with information,
understanding, and hard facts to make arguments
and plans more credible to large audiences and
gives points to negotiate when it is time for decisions
to be made.
(3) It can help to identify points in the system that
can be challenged both legally and through
community action.

15. 3. What Action Research can Do?
(4) It allows people to understand themselves
better, increases their awareness of problems,
and raises commitment. To know the facts
firsthand is to have one’s consciousness raised
and dedication（奉献） increased about
particular issues.

16. 3. What Action Research can Do?
(5) Action research can serve as an organizing
strategy to get people involved and active around
particular issues. The research itself is an action.
(6) It helps you to develop confidence. It is difficult
to act forcefully toward some goal when you rely
on feelings without data to support your views.
Data gathering helps you to plan strategy and
develop community action programs.

17. The Action Research Approach to Data
(1) Data type/数据类型
Documentary materials/文献资料
Much of the material you may need is not secret and can be found in libraries, courthouses, and law offices.
A particularly compelling kind of documentary material is less accessible to the public. These are documents from the trade journals, newsletters（时事通讯）, and magazines of the particular group under investigation.

18. The Action Research Approach to Data
(1) Data type/数据类型
Consumer testimony/个体陈述
Action researchers often build on the qualitative strategy
of eliciting (引出) consumer perspectives, and people who
we usually assume cannot speak for themselves. These
people can become part of the movement rather than objects
to be served by it.

19. The Action Research Approach to Data
(2) Data Characteristic/数据特征
Outsiders do not know what “it's really like here”.
They are often gathered and used to expose.

20. The Action Research Approach to Data
(3) Strategies/策略
Anonymity (Depend on your goal)
Describe your observations in detail
Correct Attitude (Be honest, accurate and thorough in accomplishing these goals, even if this is a long run)

21. Action Research and the Qualitative Tradition
Qualitative methods arose in a time of social turbulence（动荡）. Muckraking journalism（揭秘新闻） preceded the social survey, whose goals were to uncover the major problems people would act to stop water pollution, urban slum（贫民窟） expansion, or the tracking of the poor in schools. In the 1930s, these same efforts emerging again.
In the 1960s, action research again in the form of group such as the National Action Research Against the Military Industrial Complex (NARMIC)，which focused on U. S. military policies.

22. Action Research and the Qualitative Tradition
In the 1980s and 1990s, action research was more popular in such areas as environmental disasters, medical policies, and social problems.
Qualitative research has always included both basic and applied work. During some historical periods these strains intertwined; at other times, they separated.

23. Reference
Acker, S. & Feuerverger, G. (2003). Hearing others and seeing ourselves: empathy and emotions in a study of Canadian academics. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing (JCT), Vol. 19, No. 3 (49-64).
Anler, J. & Biklen, S. K. (1990). Changing education: women as radicals and conservators. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Bogdan, R. C. & Biklen, S. K. (2006). Qualitative Research for Education: An Introduction to Theory and Methods (Fifth Edition). Pearson, 2006.
Li, L. (2008). Constructing teacher’s professional identity in China and Canada：Life stories in context. Saarbrucken, Germany: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG.
Paris, D. (2011). "A friend who understand fully": Notes on humanizing research in a multiethnic youth community. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 24(2),
Ropoport, R. N. (1970). Three dilemmas in action research. Human Relations, 23(6),
Spindler, G. (1982). Doing the ethnography of schooling: Educational anthropology in action. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
刘良华. (2005). 重申“行动研究”. 比较教育研究, (5).
王添森. (2009). 教育行动研究的认识论问题——由“局内人”视角引出的讨论.教育研究与实验，(5).
赵明仁.王嘉毅. (2009). 教育行动研究的类型的分析. 教育研究与实验, (2).