Category: Research About Research

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Research Methods

After the tutorials on research and action research, I began thinking about what kinds of research would be best applied to help me investigate EDF and how it impacts students and staff.

After thinking about my objectives for the project, I decided that a mixture of methods would be best. Most relevant are: thematic analysis, reflexive practice, interviews and literature reviews.

Texts I’ve engaged with on Research about Research:

  • Jean McNiff’s Action Research Booklet
  • Neil Drabble’s Spark Journal article It’s all about ‘me’, with you: Exploring auto-ethnographic methodology
  • Nowell et al, Thematic Analysis: Striving to Meet the Trustworthiness Criteria
  • Kim England’s Getting Personal: Reflexivity, Positionality, and Feminist Research 
  • Robert Schroeder’s Evaluative Criteria for Autoethnographic Research: Who’s to Judge
  • Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s  Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples
  • Brendon Barne’s Decolonising Research Methodologies: Opportunity and Caution
  • Nora Cate Schaeffer & Stanley Presser, The Science of Asking Questions

Texts I’ve engaged with so far on Procrastination, Executive Function and Explicit Strategy Instruction:

  • Piers Steel’s  The Nature of Procrastination: A Meta-analytic and Theoretical Review of Quintessential Self-regulatory Failure and his book The Procrastination Equation
  • Lynne Meltzer’s Executive Function In Education: From Theory To Practice
  • Paula Moraine’s Helping Students Take Control of Everyday Executive Functions: The Attention Fix

In engaging with these texts, I have been able to reframe not just my own behaviour regarding procrastination and EDF, but what these terms mean from an intersectional, and decolonised perspective. This topic is infinitely complex, varied and subjective. As a researcher, it was a relief to find that there is so much literature on this topic from a variety of sources, although it is worth mentioning that the majority of the authors of the works on procrastination are white. This is largely due to the pervasive colonial/Capitalistic ideology of time-saving and productivity being synonymous with value in human beings (Grooms 2020). Despite all the texts I have engaged with, I feel as though I have only just scratched the surface with this research topic. I also feel that it’s hard to demonstrate how I have engaged with these texts without writing screeds and screeds.

Multi-processing


I recently watched a Netflix documentary about Bill Gates and his career that struck a huge cord with me. Gate’s wife Melinda was talking about his work methods, and she described him as a ‘multiprocessor’. He will be reading something, and while part of his mind is occupied with reading and comprehending the text, another part of his mind will be cogitating on a different problem. Her framing of how his mind works made me think about my own learning processes. I always need to work with music or the TV on to help me focus. If I am having an issue with solving a problem I will usually “procrastinate” by cleaning the house, because I find that doing a mundane activity helps me to process. Even when attempting to sleep, if I do not distract my mind with some kind of sound, I will lie awake in the dark cogitating. Thinking about EDF and procrastination from this angle, are procrastinators multi-processors who need to utilise positive procrastination/ positive distraction to problem solve?

Further to this, moving forward how can I use this idea in my research to help students who procrastinate?

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What the **** is Action Research?

Before the session today we were asked to read the introduction to Jean McNiff’s Action Research for Professional Development booklet.

I definitely had a lot of cognitive dissonance during the workshop and while reading this text. Teaching a course that is almost entirely action research-based, I was often confused about why my students found the concept of action research and interventions hard to grasp. Now that I am approaching action research from the perspective of a student, I can see where the lack of clarity from tutors (and from the resources we give to students) can produce uncertainty, disorientation and even resentment. There was definitely a clash between my teaching brain and my student brain.

For example, as a student I found the McNiff text quite unhelpful in unpacking what action research actually is in clear terms. She writes in a repetitive and obfuscatory way about what action research is and not much about what it isn’t. While I am sure no one wishes to spend their days defining research principles in opposition to other research principles, some kind of distinction would have been useful for me, at least as a starting point to begin my research. As a student, I like clear directives that tell me what goes where. Without those directives, I find my mind is a jumble of possibilities and I am unable to focus. For someone like me who has an overactive brain, a lack of parameters can be a dangerous thing as I find it hard to know where and when to stop. This, paired with a tendency towards perfectionism, and it’s cousin procrastination, left me feeling quite stuck and anxious as to how to proceed after reading the handbook.

Looking at the booklet from an educator’s perspective I can see why McNiff deliberately steered clear of giving any sort of directive for what action research is or is not. Keeping the definitions open allows for anyone reading the booklet to take the principles of action research and adapt them to suit their own ends. This is where the learning happens, within the multiple trials and errors of the action research process. A list of do’s and don’ts could inhibit the freedom of the researcher to make mistakes and learn from them.

So what actually are the key elements of action research?

  • Practitioner based: The purpose of action research is for the practitioner (researcher) to investigate their own behaviour or reasons for doing things in a systematic way.
  • Self-reflective: The researcher must investigate their own behaviour and also reflect on that behaviour. What impact does their behaviour have on others, on themselves?
  • Systematic investigation: Action research usually utilises a variety of research methodologies in tandem to investigate behaviour and produce a well rounded set of results from which to draw data and analyse.
  • Open ended: Action research does not begin with a fixed hypothesis, it begins with an idea you develop or a behaviour you wish to investigate and get clarity on. Having a fixed idea chokes the research process and makes it directive rather than explorative
  • Taking action: The clue is in the name. Action research must conducted by engaging in specific, systematic research actions relevant to the behaviour you wish to study or the question you want answered.
  • Evaluation: Once you have taken action, you must evaluate the effect those actions have on the issue. Did they solve the problem or get you closer to solving the problem? In what way? If not, what could be done differently?
  • Democratic: The researcher does not conduct research on other people. They are researching themselves. Participants are invited and treated with care and respect, not as test subjects.
  • Social intent: Action research seeks to provide research that is of benefit to social groups or society at large – not specific individuals.
  • Accountability: Ensuring there are checks and balances in place which keep the research ethical, safe and as unbiased as possible.
  • Enquiry: Consistent questioning of your work, your methodologies and your values. Evaluating those to determine how improvements can be made.
  • Learning: Each action you take as you work through the action research cycle contributes to your learning and understanding of the subject/yourself.

How does someone conduct action research?

McNiff states that action research is conducted by creating an action plan and following it. Action research is cyclical, meaning that any one project has the potential to encompass a few “cycles” of action research before the practitioner reaches a conclusion; adapting the action plan as they move through the cycle and test their hypothesis.

What issue am I interested in researching?

Why do I want to research this issue?

What kind of evidence can I gather to show why I am interested in this issue?

What can I do? What will I do?

What kind of evidence can I gather to show that I am having an influence?

How can I explain that influence?

How can I ensure that any judgements I might make are reasonably fair and accurate?

How will I change my practice in the light of my evaluation?

McNiff’s modified version of Jack Whitehead’s action planning technique.

Personal musings on action research

  • How can I use reflective practice to create a research project which has merit and is genuinely useful to others? (Rather than just navel-gazing and calling it research!)
  • “looking at your own work to check that it is as you would like it to be…” What do I want my research to be? How can I ensure that my research is rigorous, ethical and meets the learning objectives set? The implication here is that the standards I must meet here are my own. However, I am creating a research project which is being graded, therefore the criteria I set for what is ‘good’ action research may be very different from what the exam board sets.
  • Moving forward, I need to begin to answer the questions above if my research is to be successful. What kinds of research methodologies am I interested in exploring? How can these contribute meaningfully to the discussion around executive function and procrastinating students?
  • What is the goal of my research?
  • How can I conduct my research in a way that avoids jumping to a solution?
  • How can I conduct my research in a way that avoids saviourism and a “troubleshooting” mentality?

Next steps

  1. Go through the action plan questions above and answer them.
  2. Reflect on my own relationship to procrastination, how does this inform my research, my learning process and my teaching practice?
  3. Review different kinds of research methodologies – what is most appropriate for my project?

Bibliography

McNiff, J., n.d. Jean McNiff – Action Research for Professional Development Booklet. [online] Jeanmcniff.com. Available at: <https://www.jeanmcniff.com/ar-booklet.asp>