Why Action Research?
We are experiencing a time of unprecedented pressure on school: greater accountability, a narrowing of the curriculum through more prescriptive assessment, a flood of directives and additional budget pressures.
It threatens to overwhelm the profession and lead to a fragmented and fragile system in which we are inclined to cling to what we know or seek simple answers to ever more complex questions.
Paradoxically, there has never been a more important time for teachers to take control of the teaching and learning debate, to acknowledge the challenges we face educating children for the 21st century and to recognise our capacity to lead on innovation and improvement. It is not only essential it is also a moral imperative.
We must remain vital and energised by our potential and aim to develop as organisations rich with interpretation. No matter how comfortable it feels, we must not seek equilibrium. We have to create a culture in which we are continuously motivated and intrigued with the chaos and complexity of new ideas. As Timperley, Kaser and Halbert have so clearly stated, new approaches to learning are necessary and new designs for learning are required.
Through a disciplined approach to collaborative inquiry, involving all stakeholders ,we hope to gain the insights and the mindsets required to design new and powerful learning systems. This process we believe will transform our school into a more innovative learning environment and powerful institution that leads rather than follows.
Creating the conditions
At St. Luke’s Primary School in Brighton, we have been engaging in research led improvement for the last five years. We knew that our context, like all schools, is unique and that one-size- fits -all solutions are merely sticking plasters which do not address the underlying local issues and needs. Traditional CPD risked making us unthinking professionals who grabbed the latest idea and applied it without owning and deeply understanding the true nature of the problem, never mind the so-called solution.