Teaching strategies Differentiated Instruction
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Action research is a participatory, democratic process concerned with developing practical knowing in the pursuit of worthwhile human purposes,
grounded in a participatory worldview, which we believe is emerging at this historical moment. It seeks to bring together action and reflection, theory and
practice, in participation with others, in the pursuit of practical solutions to issues of pressing concern to people, and more generally the flourishing of
individual persons and their communities Reason Bradbury, 2001, p.1.
Further, they emphasized the key points of action research, which are participative and emancipatory in the purpose of pursuing practical knowledge and new
abilities to create knowledge. In accordance with this, according to Stringer 2007, p.8, action research is “a collaborative approach to inquiry or investigation that
provides people with the means to take the systematic action to resolve specific problems.”
Action research has been practiced in diverse fields. As Kemmis, McTaggart, and Nixon 2014 mentioned, it has been employed in the fields of
women’s movement, indigenous land rights, green and conservation activism, disease prevention, and in professional fields such as education, nursing,
medicine, and agriculture. A number of terms such as industrial action research, action science, action learning, soft systems approaches, and participatory
research have been employed in different fields with similar purpose of action research. Despite the different terms to address action research, they still share the
common key features, namely people’s active participation in all aspects of the research process and people’s intention to make improvements over certain
encountered problems Kemmis, et al., 2014, p.4. As a manifestation of postmodern civilization in education Mills, 2011,
p.6 , participatory action research emerges as the “evolution of action research
and practitioner research as practiced in education” James, Milenkiewicz, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
33 Bucknam, 2008, p.1. In this type of research, people and stakeholders are
involved and their participation is highly required. As participation is the key element in this research, human justice, democracy, and equity are highly
promoted in its process. Among the several fields, action research has been employed frequently in
educational settings in the purpose of continuing academic improvements e.g. Varasarin, 2007; Mbato, 2013; Gustine, 2014; Mount, 2014. In education field,
action research is defined as a systematic inquiry conducted by teacher researchers or other stakeholders in the teachinglearning environment to gather information
about the ways of their educational settings operate, their teaching, and their students’ learning in the purpose of developing reflective practice as well as
effective positive changes in educational practices, and improving students outcomes and the lives of those involved Mills, 2011. In short, action research
allows academic practitioners to find effective solutions for local problems and increase the effectiveness of the work in which they are engaged Stringer, 2007.
In the context of education in particular, action research aims to “identify a problematic situation” Burns, 2010, p.2 related to classroom, instructional
activities, or curriculum, and bring out changes as well as improvements in order to overcome the problems. Thus, it is clear that the end purpose of action
research is to improve “the quality of people’s organizations, communities, and
family lives” Stringer, 2007, p.10. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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