All You Need To Know About Action Research - Softcover

McNiff, Jean; Whitehead, A Jack

Softcover

ISBN 10: 141290806X ISBN 13: 9781412908061

Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2006

Synopsis

In All You Need to Know About Action Research, leading practitioners Jean McNiff and Jack Whitehead are your guides to a vast and fast-moving field. They provide a brilliantly written and easy-to-follow introduction to action research that will be essential reading for students, practitioners and seasoned researchers alike.This book is essential reading for anyone interested in action research. It is equally essential reading for anyone interested in making a difference; in generating theory from research; and in learning from practice.

About this title

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, and at the Beijing Normal University and Ningxia Teachers’ University, People’s 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 www.jeanmcniff.com, or contact her at jeanmcniff@mac.com

Review:

′This book provides a comprehensive coverage of the action research process - planning and carrying out the research as well as the dissemination of outcomes. With the recent global emphasis on generating practice-based evidence to enhance the quality of provision in a range of disciplines - education and health just to name two, this book will be an invaluable resource for those who are either embarking on action research or leading it. Written in an accesible style this book addresses both theory and practice associated with action research. Sections on personal theorising of knowledge and presention of findings to a range of audiences would be particularly useful to the reader′ - Valsa Koshy, The School of Sport and Education, Brunel University

′Action Research is increasingly recognised as a form of professional enquiry with the potential to generate new knowledge and understanding grounded in the realities of everyday practice. This accessible book identifies core issues in Action Research and provides valuable practical guidance for practitioners who wish to investigate, evaluate and improve their practice and learning′ - Angela Christiansen, Head of Nursing Studies, Edge Hill University

′This Second Edition of ′All You Need to Know about Action Research′ is an accessible and invaluable text for anyone interested in using this method. McNiff and Whitehead use their considerable experience and insight into action research to show how research can be about learning and creating knowledge and improvement through careful and systematic inquiry into personal and organizational practice′ - Russ Vince, Professor of Leadership & Change, the School of Management, University of Bath

It is not the intention of the book to offer an overview of all the different types of action research internationally and historically, but rather how to go about doing action research as an indiviudal who wants to improve their practice from their stance of educational action research. And this, they do very well... The writing style is simple and easy to read, but not simplistic. It covers all the important aspects of research to ensure quality, for example, validity, triangulation, ethics, development of conceptual frameworks, analysis and so on but with examples which mean you really grasp and understand deeper methodological issues and the politics of knowledge... it is an enjoyable read as well as a practical guide.

Annika Coughlin
SRA: Reviews

About this edition

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 141290806X
• ISBN 13: 9781412908061
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280