Quote from Guest on 13th July 2020, 5:00 pm

I though I'd start a thread on action research as people were asking, so we can provide a few examples.

Action research is a good way of researching practice in context to transform it and is popular in education and health care; the two professional doctorates at the OU.

For instance, my research problem is retention of students with mental health challenges in distance learning as they have a high drop out rate; I want to explore approaches to tutor support to facilitate students to complete their modules. I am negotiating approaches to support with students and implementing approaches and evaluating what works with them. I will be using case study research. 

My approach is participatory action research as the students are involved in decision making and evaluation, and will be feeding back on my analysis. It is tempting to call it emancipatory research as I aim to to empower them to become independent learners and to give voice to a disadvantaged group but felt that I could not truly call it that as participants don't have control over the agenda.

Annie