Table of Contents

Foreward - Pat Maguire
Preface
Introduction: What is an Action Research Dissertation?
Action Research Traditions and Knowledge Interests
The Multiple Traditions of Action Research
Action Research and Organizational Development/Learning
Participatory Research: The Legacy of Paulo Freire
Action Research in Education
Emerging Approaches to Action Research
The Knowledge interests of Action Research
The Continuum of Positionality in Action Research
Insider: Researcher Studies Own Self/Practice
Insider in Collaboration with Other Insiders
Insider Initiated Studies with Outsiders
PAR: Reciprocal Collaboration (Insider-Outsiders Teams)
PAR: Outsider Initiated Studies with Insiders
Outsider(s) Studies Insider(s)
Quality Criteria for Action Research: An Ongoing Conversation
Delegitimizing Action Research: Opposition in the Academy
Redefining Rigor: Criteria of Quality for Action Research
Are the Findings of Action Research "Generalizable"?
The Politics of Action Research
Designing the Plane While Flying it: Proposing and Doing the Dissertation
The Dissertation Proposal
Where Do Action Research Questions Come from?
Issues of Design and Methodology
The Literature Review: Literature in Dialogue with the Data
Writing the Dissertation
Defending the Dissertation
What does a Participatory Action Research Dissertation look like?
Lynne Mock: Carving a Dissertation Out of a Participatory Action Research Project
Alice McIntyre: Initiating a Participatory Action Research Group
Action Research, Ethics, and the Institutional Review Board
Background to the Creation of the IRB
The Role of the Institutional Review Board
Final Thoughts
References
Appendix A
Index

About the Author

Kathryn G. Herr is a faculty member in the College of Education and Human Services at Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey.  She is co-author of the book Studying Your Own School: An Educator’s Guide to Qualitative Practitioner Research (Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 1994). She is also Editor of the interdisciplinary journal Youth and Society. Her professional background is in Social Work and Education. Gary L. Anderson is a professor in the Department of Administration, Leadership, and Technology in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University. He is a former teacher and high school principal. He has written numerous articles on action research with co-author Kathryn Herr as well as articles and books on educational policy and leadership. He is the author of Advocacy Leadership: Toward a Post-reform Agenda (Routledge).

Reviews

“The authors have deftly produced a thoughtful, comprehensive, and much needed overview of the process of creating an action research dissertation that is sure to benefit generations of students and their faculty mentors."
*Davydd Greenwood*

"The Action Research Dissertation should be required reading for any student contemplating using an action research approach in a thesis or dissertation project.  Kathryn Herr and Gary Anderson serve as able and amiable navigators through the challenging but equally rewarding process of planning, carrying out, and completing an action research dissertation. Clear explanations, compelling exemplars, and an honest discussion of the challenges of conducting an action research project combined with a sense of the passion and commitment of those who choose this path, make the volume a balanced and engaging guide to all would-be action researchers."
*Mary Brydon-Miller*

"Finally, a thoughtful, accessible, and immensely helpful volume designed to promote dialogue among doctoral students and faculty about dissertation studies grounded in the everyday worlds of practice. By creating spaces for deep discussion about the decisions dissertators make (rather than proposing and arguing for particular solutions), the book sets doctoral researchers on their own quest for meaning, clarity and coherence. The rhetoric and contents of the book thus mirror its authors’ commitment to agency for doctoral students seeking to make their inquiries of value both within and beyond the academy."
*Susan Lytle*

"This book fills an important gap in the action research literature by specifically addressing the growing practice of action research master’s studies and doctoral dissertations in colleges and universities throughout the world. Like the authors’ previous work, this book provides a broad and clear overview of the varieties of action research. The discussion of the underlying choices that action researchers operating in a university degree program need to make and how such choices affect the quality of an action research project from different perspectives is an extremely valuable resource for students and faculty. I plan to use this book with my own graduate students on a regular basis."
*Ken Zeichner*