Writing and Doing Action Research

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.

• IntroductionWhat is written in an action research text?What do you need to know about action research in order to write it?What do you need to know to write action research? Why do you need to know it?What do you write in an action research text?What is the form of an action research text?Becoming a writer: researching writing practicesBecoming a writerWriting a good quality textPlanning for the production of textsWriting an action research textWriting proposalsMasters and doctoral dissertations and thesesHow will the quality of your action research dissertation/thesis be judged?Writing for publicationWriting for academic and professional journalsWriting your first academic bookThe significance of your textThe significance of your action research textSome implications – where next?

The leading expert in practitioner research, Jean McNiff ensures that the practice of writing, as well as the practice of research, is beautifully revealed.