Action Research
According
to the Dana text, administrative inquiry or action research is the process of a
school leader engaging in systematic and intentional study of one’s own
practice and taking action for change based on what is learned from the inquiry.
Leadership poses questions, collects and
analyzes data, develops a new understanding for change, and shares their
findings with others. (Dana, 2009, p. 2)
Traditional
standard research requires someone to give instructions and steps to implement
change based on others research. That
person is usually not the participant in the change. Action research involves the practitioner in
the process from start to implementation and beyond. The practitioner states an issue, uses data
collected, engages in reflection of their own actions, examines directions to
take, implements action, and continues with improvement. Action research empowers leaders to implement
change based on their own wanderings and helps them invest in change and
enables them to convince buy in of others.
Action
research provides the practitioner a unique perspective and insight to
change. They see firsthand what is
needed, what is working, what needs improving, and positive or negative
results. This approach enables a leader
to focus on important issues they feel need attention.
Dana, N.F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge:
The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
My Wandering
On our campus, we are suffering from a huge problem with
staff morale. Employees are not trained properly when hired, they are not
informed of procedures and policies of the university, and there is no
incentive in place to reward excellence in job performance. All of these
factors contribute to staff retention, which in turn, contributes to student
satisfaction and retention due to customer service. My goal is to
restructure departmental hiring practices, design and develop informational
manuals about university procedures and policies for each department, and
implement a reward system for staff. I think once staff is trained and
focused, they will have more confidence in dealing with students and
issues. This will give students quality service increasing retention due
to customer service.
How can educational leaders use blogs?
Blogging is a good way for leaders to journal, share, brainstorm,
collaborate, and discover ideas and wanderings.
Online blogs and journals enable an opportunity for open communication
for leaders and educators. There is
opportunity to share ideas, opinions, successes and failures. As a leader, blogs can be used to document a
timeline of thoughts and reflections and organize wanderings and insights. Blogs allow communication among followers to
brainstorm and collaborate new ideas for possible implementation. Blogging can strengthen lines of
communication for all participants.
No comments:
Post a Comment