Assuming no prior knowledge of research methods and techniques, this book is the perfect companion for teachers at all levels undergoing professional development who need to enhance their formal reflection skills. Providing a detailed explanation of what action research is and its importance in terms of whole school development, this book invites the teachers to try out educational research for themselves and adopt an investigative attitude that will help improve and evaluate practice. It includes: * Support and guidance that help you tackle key issues * "Real-life" practical case studies that underline what action research is and how it can be effectively used.

This thoughtful volume challenges widely accepted, traditionalist scientific notions of ‘the academic’ – prevalent in higher education institutions globally – in order to promote best practice, and redefine the field as accessible, inclusive and forward thinking. This book situates itself away from the dominant discourse on academia and eschews the common tropes that have proved prohibitive to furthering the field and research within. By releasing ‘the academic’ from the restrictive, narrow boundaries typically imposed, Representations of the Academic opens up a form of public sphere where the contributors bring together their innovative views to propose a new normative form. Chapters explore examples of good practice that demonstrate alternative ways of thinking and, in doing so, the book continues an emergent tradition of investigating the origins, nature and purposes of academic work at a time when critical values are under threat. The book will be of interest to students, academics and researchers in the fields of education, educational research and higher and professional education more broadly. Those involved with interdisciplinary and intercultural studies, ethics and values in research will also benefit from this volume.

Action Research for Professional Selling by Peter McDonnell and Jean McNiff is for people working, or hoping to work in sales, who wish to improve their capacity for selling, and who may be involved in providing or participating in a structured sales training programme. It provides a basis for professional selling that connects the sales process to different philosophical models for understanding human interactions and contains much practical advice for selling in a tough economic environment. Action research is used across the professions as a powerful methodology for improving performance and outcomes and will enable sales practitioners to generate their practical theories of selling. The book answers calls for evidence-based practice in sales education, placing special emphasis on the strength of a values-based approach over the outmoded manipulative models of the past (many of which are still in evidence). It is essential to develop your understanding of what you are doing, and be able to explain it, and the book shows you how to do this through researching your practice in action. It focuses seriously on selling as a field of research offering an innovative, practical approach to selling, underpinned by strong theoretical and philosophical frameworks.

Values and Virtues in Higher Education Research centres on practitioners studying and researching their practices in higher education settings, in order to improve those practices for the benefit of others and themselves. Making research public is a key aspect of ensuring the quality of educational research and educational practices: Values and Virtues in Higher Education Research raises questions and develops conversations about why higher education practitioners should study and improve their work, how this may be done, and what might be some of the benefits of doing so. What we do as practitioners is influenced by and linked with what we value, what we believe is good. Improving practices therefore involves becoming aware of and interrogating the values that enter into and inform those practices; a study of practices becomes a study of the relationships between the practices in question and their values base. From an international group of contributors in this growing field, this book provides strong theoretical resources and case study material that shows how this transformation may be achieved, including topics such as: Theorising practices to show personal and organisational accountability Developing inter-professional and inter-disciplinary dialogues for social transformation Establishing communities of inquiry in higher education and other workplace settings Reconceptualising professional education as research-informed practice Locating educational theory in the real world for human and environmental wellbeing Showing the evolution of theory through critical engagement, this text will be a valuable companion for lecturers, students and professional developers in higher education. This book will form core reading for those who are interested in engaging in practice-based research, and as additional reading for those whose aim is to broaden their thinking in relation to the role of values and virtues in educational research. Jean McNiff is an independent researcher and writer, Professor of Educational Research at York St John University, and Visiting Professor at Oslo and Akershus University College, Beijing Normal University and Ningxia Teachers University. She is also the author of key texts Action Research: Principles and Practice, You and Your Action Research Project and Writing Up Your Action Research Project.

Assuming no prior knowledge of research methods and techniques, this book is the perfect companion for teachers at all levels undergoing professional development who need to enhance their formal reflection skills.

Providing a detailed explanation of what action research is and its importance in terms of whole school development, this book invites the teachers to try out educational research for themselves and adopt an investigative attitude that will help improve and evaluate practice. It includes:

* Support and guidance that help you tackle key issues

* "Real-life" practical case studies that underline what action research is and how it can be effectively used.

Many practice-based researchers have expert knowledge of doing research but often experience difficulties when writing it up and communicating the significance of what they have done. This book aims to help bridge the gap. Packed with practical advice and strong theoretical resources it takes you through the basics of designing and producing your text so that it will meet established standards and high quality assurance expectations. Divided into 3 distinctive parts, key points include: understanding writing practices engaging with the literatures how to write up a project report or dissertation how writing is judged in terms of professional and academic writing practices developing ideas for further study and publication Writing up Your Action Research Project is an essential text for practitioners on professional education and undergraduate courses across disciplines who want their writing to reflect the excellence of their research. It is the ideal companion to the author's You and Your Action Research Project, now in its fourth edition.

Many practice-based researchers have expert knowledge of doing research but often experience difficulties when writing it up and communicating the significance of what they have done. This book aims to help bridge the gap. Packed with practical advice and strong theoretical resources it takes you through the basics of designing and producing your text so that it will meet established standards and high quality assurance expectations. Divided into 3 distinctive parts, key points include: understanding writing practices engaging with the literatures how to write up a project report or dissertation how writing is judged in terms of professional and academic writing practices developing ideas for further study and publication Writing up Your Action Research Project is an essential text for practitioners on professional education and undergraduate courses across disciplines who want their writing to reflect the excellence of their research. It is the ideal companion to the author's You and Your Action Research Project, now in its fourth edition.

Since its first publication, Action Research: Principles and Practice has become a key text in its field. This new updated edition clearly describes and explains the practices of action research and its underlying values, and introduces important new ideas, including: all professionals should be reflective practitioners; they should produce their personal theories of practice to show how they are holding themselves accountable for their educational influences in learning; the stories they produce become a new people's history of action research, with potential for influencing new futures. This new edition has expanded in scope, to contribute to diverse fields including professional development across the sectors and the disciplines. It considers the current field, including its problems as well as its considerable hopes and prospects for new thinking and practices. Now fully updated, this book contains: A wealth of case-study material New chapters on the educational significance of action research An overview of methodological and ethical discussion The book is a valuable addition to the literature on research methods in education and nursing and healthcare, and professional education, and contributes to contemporary debates about the generation and dissemination of knowledge and its potential influence for wider social and environmental contexts. Practitioners across the professions who are planning action research in their own work settings will find this book a helpful introduction to the subject while those studying on higher degree courses will find it an indispensable resource.

Series Information:
Routledge Studies in Human Resource Development

The issue of pastoral care and how a teacher effectively provides it is currently a topic of great debate in the media. With teachers increasingly bearing the brunt of their pupils' difficult personal lives, they feel under pressure to do the 'right thing' and to do it in an informed and professional manner.
This book looks at how teachers can attempt to give good quality pastoral care, whether as a form tutor in the first instance or in a managerial role further along in their development. It uses practical case studies as examples of what can be achieved, and explores the theory of this subject.
It is aimed at teachers, counsellors and undergraduates on PGCE, BEd and BA courses.

The issue of pastoral care and how a teacher effectively provides it is currently a topic of great debate in the media. With teachers increasingly bearing the brunt of their pupils' difficult personal lives, they feel under pressure to do the 'right thing' and to do it in an informed and professional manner.
This book investigates how teachers can attempt to give good quality pastoral care, whether as a form tutor in the first instance or in a managerial role further along in their development. It uses practical case studies as examples of what can be achieved, and explores the theory of this subject, making is the perfect resource for teachers, counsellors and undergraduates on PGCE, BEd and BA courses.

`I applaud all this and can only agree with Jean McNiff about the importance of the teacher being also a learner and capable of taking control, over her professional life and practice, which is so important for teachers developing (and retaining) a sense of professionalism.' - British Jrnl of Curriculum & Assessment

In this fascinating and very personal book, Jean McNiff, author of the successful Action Research: Principles and Practice, argues that educational knowledge is created by individual teachers as they attempt to express their own values in their professional lives.
Working with case studies of actual practice, she looks again at the familiar action research paradigm of identifying a problem, imagining, implementing and evaluating a solution and modifying practice in the light of that evaluation. She gives practical advice on how working in this way can aid the professional development of action researcher and practitioner alike. She concludes that the best teaching is done by those who want to learn and who can show others how to be open to their own processes of self development.

You and Your Action Research Project is packed full of useful advice to take the reader through the various stages of an action research project. Written for practitioners across professions who are studying on work-based learning programmes and award-bearing courses, this book contains practical strategies for improving project work. Split into the following five sections; Thinking about doing a project, Getting ready to do a project, Planning a project and managing it, Doing your project, Evaluating your action research project, the structure is clearly accessible and easy-to-read, encouraging readers of cross-curricular interests from teachers, to nurses and social workers to try new approaches. This fourth edition of the best-seller has been thoroughly updated and improved, with new and up-to-date case study material from a very wide range of disciplines, greater emphasis on the need for dialogical practices, points for reflection, more developed ideas about sorting and analysing data, and a stronger focus on writing as a form of research. With key sections on engaging with the literatures and collaborative practices, whilst also developing ideas about writing and data analysis, this book will be essential reading for those wanting to begin and further develop their action research. Jean McNiff is an independent researcher and writer, Professor of Educational Research at York St John University, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Limerick. She is also the author of key text Action Research: Principles and Practice.

Nurses work in complex situations with daily challenges, where the needs of each patient represent unique demands. Action research helps nurses to investigate their practices as reflective practitioners, allowing them to ask 'What is going on? How do we understand the existing situation? How do we improve it?' This book supports nurses in investigating their own professional practices in order to develop the new insights and approaches: * embodying holistic perspectives in dialogical and relational forms of individual and organisational learning, * equal emphasis on processes and outcomes; * welcoming all participants' contributions , and listening to all voices; * developing a patient-centred focus where people are involved in their own healing; * building communities of enquiring practices. This book is intended for undergraduate student nurses, qualified practising nurses in clinical settings who may or may not be engaged in formal professional education courses and nurse educators and managers.

Since its first publication, Action Research: Principles and Practice has become a key text in its field. This new updated edition clearly describes and explains the practices of action research and its underlying values, and introduces important new ideas, including: all professionals should be reflective practitioners; they should produce their personal theories of practice to show how they are holding themselves accountable for their educational influences in learning; the stories they produce become a new people's history of action research, with potential for influencing new futures. This new edition has expanded in scope, to contribute to diverse fields including professional development across the sectors and the disciplines. It considers the current field, including its problems as well as its considerable hopes and prospects for new thinking and practices. Now fully updated, this book contains: A wealth of case-study material New chapters on the educational significance of action research An overview of methodological and ethical discussion The book is a valuable addition to the literature on research methods in education and nursing and healthcare, and professional education, and contributes to contemporary debates about the generation and dissemination of knowledge and its potential influence for wider social and environmental contexts. Practitioners across the professions who are planning action research in their own work settings will find this book a helpful introduction to the subject while those studying on higher degree courses will find it an indispensable resource.

Action Research for Professional Selling by Peter McDonnell and Jean McNiff is for people working, or hoping to work in sales, who wish to improve their capacity for selling, and who may be involved in providing or participating in a structured sales training programme. It provides a basis for professional selling that connects the sales process to different philosophical models for understanding human interactions and contains much practical advice for selling in a tough economic environment. Action research is used across the professions as a powerful methodology for improving performance and outcomes and will enable sales practitioners to generate their practical theories of selling. The book answers calls for evidence-based practice in sales education, placing special emphasis on the strength of a values-based approach over the outmoded manipulative models of the past (many of which are still in evidence). It is essential to develop your understanding of what you are doing, and be able to explain it, and the book shows you how to do this through researching your practice in action. It focuses seriously on selling as a field of research offering an innovative, practical approach to selling, underpinned by strong theoretical and philosophical frameworks.

Values and Virtues in Higher Education Research centres on practitioners studying and researching their practices in higher education settings, in order to improve those practices for the benefit of others and themselves. Making research public is a key aspect of ensuring the quality of educational research and educational practices: Values and Virtues in Higher Education Research raises questions and develops conversations about why higher education practitioners should study and improve their work, how this may be done, and what might be some of the benefits of doing so. What we do as practitioners is influenced by and linked with what we value, what we believe is good. Improving practices therefore involves becoming aware of and interrogating the values that enter into and inform those practices; a study of practices becomes a study of the relationships between the practices in question and their values base. From an international group of contributors in this growing field, this book provides strong theoretical resources and case study material that shows how this transformation may be achieved, including topics such as: Theorising practices to show personal and organisational accountability Developing inter-professional and inter-disciplinary dialogues for social transformation Establishing communities of inquiry in higher education and other workplace settings Reconceptualising professional education as research-informed practice Locating educational theory in the real world for human and environmental wellbeing Showing the evolution of theory through critical engagement, this text will be a valuable companion for lecturers, students and professional developers in higher education. This book will form core reading for those who are interested in engaging in practice-based research, and as additional reading for those whose aim is to broaden their thinking in relation to the role of values and virtues in educational research. Jean McNiff is an independent researcher and writer, Professor of Educational Research at York St John University, and Visiting Professor at Oslo and Akershus University College, Beijing Normal University and Ningxia Teachers University. She is also the author of key texts Action Research: Principles and Practice, You and Your Action Research Project and Writing Up Your Action Research Project.

You and Your Action Research Project is packed full of useful advice to take the reader through the various stages of an action research project. Written for practitioners across professions who are studying on work-based learning programmes and award-bearing courses, this book contains practical strategies for improving project work. Split into the following five sections; Thinking about doing a project, Getting ready to do a project, Planning a project and managing it, Doing your project, Evaluating your action research project, the structure is clearly accessible and easy-to-read, encouraging readers of cross-curricular interests from teachers, to nurses and social workers to try new approaches. This fourth edition of the best-seller has been thoroughly updated and improved, with new and up-to-date case study material from a very wide range of disciplines, greater emphasis on the need for dialogical practices, points for reflection, more developed ideas about sorting and analysing data, and a stronger focus on writing as a form of research. With key sections on engaging with the literatures and collaborative practices, whilst also developing ideas about writing and data analysis, this book will be essential reading for those wanting to begin and further develop their action research. Jean McNiff is an independent researcher and writer, Professor of Educational Research at York St John University, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Limerick. She is also the author of key text Action Research: Principles and Practice.

The current orthodoxy is that 'knowledge' is the most powerful resource for organisational success. So how can managers develop the appropriate knowledge base to make their organisations grow? The answer lies in action research. Action research is increasingly perceived and used as a powerful methodology to promote professional awareness and development. However, there are very few texts that demonstrate how this can be utilised to promote management and organisational improvement or that emphasise the reflective nature of improving professionalism. action Research in Organisations fills this gap. Aimed at both practising managers and university students alike, features of this title include:
* the location of management and organisational theory within a framework * examination of the principles and practice of action research
* real-world examples and case-studies of people attempting to improve their own situations through action research.

In Writing and Doing Action Research, Jean McNiff provides a comprehensive and user-friendly guide to the practical aspects of writing and doing action research. Written for practitioners involved in higher degree courses and professional development programmes, and students undertaking methods courses, this book includes guidance on how to: Carry out an action research project in your setting Present your findings in a dissertation, report or thesis Write up your research with an eye to informing policy Demonstrate the quality of your research and writing Be critical and write theoretically Write for journals and prepare thesis and book proposals The book contains excerpts taken from action research projects in a range of settings and presents exercises to help you develop successful written accounts of your research. Writing and Doing Action Research is an essential text for anyone working with action research, providing vital guidance on the preparation and production of texts, how this type of work is assessed and enabling you to get the best results from your research.

Nurses work in complex situations with daily challenges, where the needs of each patient represent unique demands. Action research helps nurses to investigate their practices as reflective practitioners, allowing them to ask 'What is going on? How do we understand the existing situation? How do we improve it?' This book supports nurses in investigating their own professional practices in order to develop the new insights and approaches: * embodying holistic perspectives in dialogical and relational forms of individual and organisational learning, * equal emphasis on processes and outcomes; * welcoming all participants' contributions , and listening to all voices; * developing a patient-centred focus where people are involved in their own healing; * building communities of enquiring practices. This book is intended for undergraduate student nurses, qualified practising nurses in clinical settings who may or may not be engaged in formal professional education courses and nurse educators and managers.

This book gives you all you need to know about action research, why you need to know it and how it can help you become a self-reflective practitioner-researcher. It provides the ideas and frameworks to understand action research, combined with a practical workbook to guide you through the practicalities and complexities of doing action research in your own context. Inside you will find: An action plan to help you embark on your project Guidance and advice on learning to ask the right questions as you progress A full resource on writing up and communicating your results Inspiration to explain the significance of what you have achieved, so that other people can learn with and from you. Accessible and insightful, this is the complete start to finish guide to doing influential action research. It is the ideal companion for students and researcher-practitioners in any research setting, from education and health to business.

This book gives you all you need to know about action research, why you need to know it and how it can help you become a self-reflective practitioner-researcher. It provides the ideas and frameworks to understand action research, combined with a practical workbook to guide you through the practicalities and complexities of doing action research in your own context. Inside you will find: An action plan to help you embark on your project Guidance and advice on learning to ask the right questions as you progress A full resource on writing up and communicating your results Inspiration to explain the significance of what you have achieved, so that other people can learn with and from you. Accessible and insightful, this is the complete start to finish guide to doing influential action research. It is the ideal companion for students and researcher-practitioners in any research setting, from education and health to business.

In Action Research: Living Theory, Jean McNiff and Jack Whitehead set out their vision for action research in the 21st Century. This is a passionate, and compelling book, that defines the philosophy behind action research and the process of doing action research for all those interested in this fast growing area. It sets in place the foundations of action research as a discipline, and roots action research as a compassionate , ethical and politically-engaged form of enquiry. McNiff and Whitehead's book will be essential reading for all those with an interest in Action Research.