Introduction Action Research in Human Servicespresents an approach to action research that assists human service professionals to improving their practice. Though the action research processes articulated in this book may be used effectively with individuals, they are particularly relevant to work with groups, families, and communities. Action research is suited to a wide range of human services work-child protection, family support, domestic violence, juvenile justice, corrections, youth work, aged care, rehabilitation, community work, community development, services to the disabled, and others. Ultimately, action research enables human service professionals to work in partnership with clients, community groups, colleagues, and others to explore significant issues and to take therapeutic action to resolve problems. The general orientation of this book is toward a participatory approach to research. It is a style of investigation grounded in the belief that effective solutions to significant problems are more likely to emerge where all "stakeholders"-those who are affected or have an effect on an issue-are involved in the processes of inquiry. Further, it enhances possibilities for connecting people to multiple networks of support within local organizations, neighborhood clubs, sports groups, schools, churches, and friendship groups. Though individual counseling and therapy continue to have an important place in this process, action research provides the basis for long-term, effective, and efficient measures to remedy problematic situations. Procedures described in this book not only build people's capacity to resolve issues effectively, but also provide long-term outcomes that strengthen families and communities, reduce dependency, and create healthier family and community environments. Approaches to Research Action Research in Human Servicesdoes not pretend to provide a comprehensive rendering of all the forms of action research, but rather presents a distinctive approach that has currency in many academic, professional, and community settings. The text offers an essentially qualitative approach to research that can be modified to accommodate researchers oriented toward other modes of inquiry. Qualitative research now encompasses a broad array of orientations and approaches, many of which are described in Denzin and Lincoln's Handbook of Qualitative Research 2000 . They are complemented by a range of approaches to action research presented by Reason and Bradbury in the Handbook of Action Research 2001 and by Susan Noffke 1997 . The approach presented in this book derives from the need to be sensitive to the 1 diverse perspectives and experiences now evident in most modern communities-to give voice to those perspectives and empower people to develop more effective ways of dealing with their professional, personal, family, or community lives. This orientation emerges from recent developments within postmodern, feminist, and critical scholarship, so that issues of positioning, knowledge, and power are embedded in the research practices presented herein. Action Research on the Run One reviewer of a draft version of this book commented, "My students would never have time to do all this." The text is necessarily detailed, providing specific guidance for many of the skills that may be required for the different contexts and problems to which action research can be applied. The Look-Think-Act routine included in Chapter 1, however, has been used in planning or problem-solving sessions covering a period of only two hours. Though complex and endemic problems may require more extensive and detailed work, a simpler research process may be applied "on the run" for daily work issues. Professional practice is enhanced by the development of a culture of inquiry that helps people gain greater clarity in thinking about their work. Structure of the Book The purpose of this book is to provide human service practitioners with an understanding of the nature of action research Chapters 1 and 2 and the procedures and applications of action research Chapters 3 through 7 . In addition, it provides practical resources that add to the fund of knowledge available to action researchers Chapters 8 through 10 . Chapter 1 presents an overview of action research, describing its characteristics and accentuating the research relationships that are integral to this methodology. Chapter 2 provides readers with a deeper understanding of the epistemology system of meaning that drives action research. It describes theoretical positions that inform the practice of action research, focusing on the interpretive processes now central to much professional and social scientific research. Chapters 3 through 7 describe in detail the stages of one cycle of an action research process-research design, data gathering, data analysis, reporting, and taking action. Each chapter features both processes and skills, providing readers with clear guidance for enacting action research routines. Chapter 8 provides a set of tools that are useful adjuncts to research. As research participants engage complex contexts, issues, and interactions, they will enhance their capacity to work effectively if they can manage conflict productively, conduct meetings efficiently, use their time effectively, facilitate the work of diverse individuals and groups, and manage the complexity and stress that come from work in complex organizational settings. Chapter 9 presents a number of case studies that are indicative of the broad range of ways in which action research can be applied to professional and community life. Stories and reports drawn from diverse settings describe ways that human service practitioners and community groups have enhanced their work by the use of action research. Finally, Chapter 10 offers a small sample of the proliferating resources now available on websites throughout the world, providing a rich resource for human service professionals, community groups, agencies, programs, and services.

Action Research in Human Services

Politics & Social Sciences

Stringer, Ernie

Dwyer, Rosalie

Social Sciences

Pearson

Informed by the authors' years of field research, teaching, and consulting, this readable, accessible new volume will assist novice researchers to understand qualitative, action research. The authors first define action research and clarifies its nature, providing a clear description of the relationship between qualitative and quantitative research. They then offer step-by-step procedures for planning, implementing, and evaluating the kind of research projects that help people use their own understanding and expertise to work systematically through a data gathering process, and, ultimately, find a solution to the problem they are investigating. Up-to-date coverage based on the work of earlier researchers clearly delineates the place of action research in the current research methodology scene; and speaks directly to the needs of those involved on a daily basis in health care settings. For future researchers.

Action Research in Health

Genat, William J.

Self-Help

Action research, applied systematically to the issue of poor academic performance, provides a high likelihood of improving student outcomes. The action research processes described in this book are honed by many years of successful application, and provide teachers, educational leaders, families and community members with a set of tools for engaging with significant problems in classrooms and schools. This book is designed to provide the reader with an understanding of the nature of action research and the procedures and applications of action research. In addition, it provides practical resources that add to the fundamentals of knowledge available to action researchers. The text is detailed, providing specific guidance for many of the skills that may be required for the different contexts and problems to which action research can be applied. Conceptual frameworks provide a "compass" or "roadmap" that will enable practitioners to keep track of action research processes applied to their work.

Action Research in Education (2nd Edition)

Education & Teaching

Schools & Teaching

Community-Based Ethnography: Breaking Traditional Boundaries of Research, Teaching, and Learning

Co-written by a professor and 10 students, this book explores their attempts to come to grips with fundamental issues related to writing narrative accounts purporting to represent aspects of people's lives. The fundamental project, around which their explorations in writing textual accounts turned, derived from the editor's initial ethnographic question: "Tell me about the [previous] class we did together?" This proved to be a particularly rich exercise, bringing into the arena all of the problems related to choice of data, analysis of data, the structure of the account, the stance of the author, tense, and case, the adequacy of the account, and more. As participants shared versions of their accounts and struggled to analyze the wealth of data they had accumulated in the previous classes -- the products of in-class practice of observation and interview -- they became aware of the ephemeral nature of narrative accounts. Reality, as written in textual form, cannot capture the immense depth, breadth, and complexity of an actual lived experience and can only be an incomplete representation that derives from the interpretive imagination of the author. The final chapter results from a number of discussions during which each contributing author briefly revisited the text and -- through dialogue with others and/or the editor -- identified the elements that would provide an overall framework that represents "the big message" of the book. In this way, the contributors attempted to provide a conceptual context that would indicate ways in which their private experiences could be seen to be relevant to the broader public arenas in which education and research is engaged. In its entirety, the book presents an interpretive study of teaching and learning. It provides a multi-voiced account that reveals how problematic, turning-point experiences in a university class are perceived, organized, constructed, and given meaning by a group of interacting individuals.

Community-Based Ethnography

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Psychology & Counseling

Routledge

Action Research in Education: Pearson New International Edition

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