Goals

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 A Statement of Action Research SIG Goals

The AERA Special Interest Group for Action Research (AERA SIG: AR) promotes active collaboration among teachers, administrators, researchers, and community members on research for purposes of improved decision-making at all levels of education. Our intents are to examine current educational practice, encourage constructive educational reform, and promote the professional development of educational practitioners in K-12 schools, in the community, and in higher education. Our interests include teacher-initiated research, inquiry into methods for enhancing the status and professionalism of educational practitioners at all levels of education, and both quantitative and qualitative investigation that leads to improved policy-making major social issues in classrooms, schools, and communities.

Purpose of the SIG (from SIG by-laws)

PURPOSE: The purpose of the Action Research SIG is to encourage and actively assist education practitioners to develop their skills in applied research and professional inquiry in order to improve educational decision-making at all levels. In doing this, this SIG intends to:

promote educational reform from within by assisting practitioners in all educational areas to focus their attention on improving their own practice by means of self-examination and focused inquiry;

promote the worth and relevance of inquiry-based findings for decision-making by practitioners at all levels of teaching and administration in school-based, community-oriented, and higher education contexts;

encourage practitioners from school, community, and higher education settings to collaborate in inquiry-oriented activities that improve the quality of education in their professional contexts;

Promotes the use of qualitative as well as quantitative methods of data collection and data analysis (and all appropriate combinations of these methods) by educational practioneres to improve the state of educational practice in which they work;

promote the use of practitioners-initiated and inquiry-based findings in policy-making directed toward major social issues at local, regional, and national levels;

In support of the above-listed SIG purposes and intents, the Action Research SIG explicitly adopts a broad, inclusive definition of "action research" and does not limit its interests or the content of its annual programs to selected groups of educators, all recognized research methodologies, and all types of decisions in its efforts to promote educational reform and improve the quality of educational actions and decisions at all levels of education.

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Last updated: March 15, 1999.