Beans Blogomatic #1, Action Research

My encounters with action research have been brief, but in these encounters I have learned a couple of things. One is that I’m not necessarily doing it right, and two, I’ve already begun to do it. The “it” that I speak of is, of course, action research. At the moment, I am currently a member of a PLC (Professional Learning Community) as well as a campus leadership team. Which brings us to the part about what I’m not doing right, as part of the PLC, I feel as though I have been taking it too lightly. Dufour reminds us in his 2002 book Getting Started: Reculturing Schools to Become Professional Learning Communities, that “Simply changing the structure of a school will not produce fundamental changes. The culture, the belief system of a school, must also change.” I have been avoiding the almost overwhelming idea that the whole culture of my school must be changed. Through action research however, I have come to the realization, that my denial is one of my problems. As far as the campus leadership team is concerned however, understanding how action research works a little better has brought me to believe that I am on the right track as part of this committee of collaborative efforts.

I feel as though having a blog as an educational leader would be beneficial in that it has the power to give insight as to what is taking place in the school. So much of what the principals, superintendents and other administrators do is seen as “behind the scenes” to so many of the stakeholders within the district community. Something as simple as sitting down at the computer a couple of times a week and putting out a few words on the schools website has so much power and can make anyone within the district feel enlightened.