Section archive - Research Methods

This article explores the ethical issues involved when researchers attempt to study participants who are personally close to them. It describes a case in which two researchers decided to study the experiences respectively of their son and grandson, both with ADD.The authors relate the specific issues raised in the case to general issues of ethics in action research.

This article introduces conversations and stories as data which I reproduced in response to the research questions, dreams, memory work and collective biography workshops with my participants. The article rechoreographs the process that enabled storytelling to emerge as a method of inquiry and a mode of representing the research.

This paper is based on the assumption that action research always affects the micropolitical balance characteristic of a certain school setting. The authors claim that micropolitics, that is the patterns of formal power and informal influence, has largely been neglected in the literature on action research in schools.Firstly in the paper the authors present the concept of micropolitics and a model consisting of three arenas for understanding micropolitics in schools.

This article describes and critically reflects on an action research project used for professional development purposes in a Middle Eastern Gulf State. The aim of the project was to improve professional development experiences for a group of in-service teacher educators, who were English as Second Language advisers. The initial discussion highlights different ideological and methodological approaches to action research and identifies core characteristics that were framed to evaluate the project. Second, the background to the local context is described followed by the action research project, the methodology and outcomes.