Digging Deeper into Action Research : A Teacher Inquirer's Field Guide

Take your great idea to the next level with action research

How―and when―can we find time to conduct meaningful action research? Great ideas and thought-provoking questions can only blossom through methodical inquiry. Nancy Fichtman Dana steps in as your action-research coach and leads you on a journey through wonderings to real change in your classroom.

From framing your question to presenting your research, this guide will encourage, challenge, and ultimately lead you through the action research process. Teachers, students, and action-research coaches alike will learn how to:

• Reframe initial wonderings into pointed inquiries
• Creatively analyze both qualitative and quantitative data
• Draw action-research topics out of ordinary discussions with colleagues
• Share findings with others to help them improve as well

With real-life vignettes, self-guided worksheets, and an included DVD, Digging Deeper into Action Research is your go-to guide each time you embark on a new journey toward professional growth.

"This field guide will undoubtedly make a valuable contribution to the larger project of practitioners engaged in the work of reflecting on, studying, and interrogating their own practice in order ultimately to improve the social life of classrooms and the learning opportunities and life chances of children."
―Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Cawthorne Professor of Teacher Education
Boston College

"This is THE book to read for any educator who ever found themselves asking, ′What just happened?!?′ If you like finding your own solutions to your teaching problems, this is the key to your freedom and to satisfaction in your teaching career!"
―Mary K. Culver, Associate Clinical Professor
Northern Arizona University

Nancy Fichtman Dana is professor of education and distinguished teaching scholar at the University of Florida, Gainesville. She began her career in education as an elementary school teacher in Hannibal Central Schools, New York. Since earning her PhD from Florida State University in 1991, she has been a passionate advocate for teacher inquiry and has worked extensively in supporting schools, districts, and universities in implementing powerful programs of job-embedded professional development through inquiry across the United States and in several countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands, China, South Korea, Estonia, Slovenia, Spain, and Portugal. She has published 12 books and more than 100 articles in professional journals and edited books focused on her research exploring teacher and principal professional development and practitioner inquiry. Dana has received many honors for her teaching, research, and writing. Among them are the Association of Teacher Educators Mentoring and Distinguished Research in Teacher Education awards, the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate’s David G. Imig Distinguished Service Award, the National Staff Development Council (now Learning Forward) Book of the Year Award, and was one of three finalist in Baylor University’s prestigious Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching 2020 competition. Before joining the faculty at University of Florida in 2003, she worked at The Pennsylvania State University for 11 years, creating and launching their award-winning inquiry-based Professional Development School program with the State College Area School District. At the University of Florida, she worked to embed inquiry as a signature pedagogy into the undergraduate teacher education program, as well as developed and taught three popular classes on inquiry at the master’s and doctoral levels. In  partnership with the Lastinger Center for Learning, Dana led the development and implementation of inquiry-based professional development for teachers across the state that included  several of the nation’s largest school districts.  Further, she was instrumental in the development of UF’s Teacher Leadership for School Improvement Program and Professional Practice Doctorate in Teachers, Schools, and Society, both national award winning programs that highlight inquiry as a signature program feature and have been recognized by U.S. News & World Report as the #1 Online Graduate Education Programs in the nation.