This paper explores the experience of three mentors working with a group of 12 practitioner action researchers; practitioners who were recipients of an Action Research Grant (ARG) in a programme initiated and managed by the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS). The EIS is a trade union, which represents over 80% of Scotland's teaching…

Prior research suggests that critical participatory action research (CPAR) -- a research approach that centers democratic participation, agency, and collective capacity-building -- may be one way to improve teachers' professional development and increase their feelings of agency and well-being. Engaging in CPAR has the potential to foster…

This article describes the Future Creating Workshop (FCW) and explores how it can create learning forums for participatory leadership. We investigate how FCW can be an effective form of professional development for educational leaders and explore what leaders learn from implementing FCWs in their settings. The FCW, a three-phase participatory…

This article presents an action research project conducted in a Swedish compulsory school. In the project the participants explored ways of identifying actions to improve in the practices of a professional learning community in order to develop teaching. This is important for participants in such communities, since the outcome of developed…

Although reflection has a key position in the development of teachers' pedagogical practices, few studies have investigated the development of physical education teachers' reflections over time. Against this backdrop, this study seeks to answer the following research question: "How does a one-year participatory action research project using…

The question of how to create a common framework for teaching (a science of the art of teaching) has often been a topic of discussion. As a result of Lesson Study, such a framework has emerged in Japan for science education. Outside Japan, however, creating a common framework for teaching has appeared to be far from easy. This article focuses on…

The article reflects on ways in which the use of participatory action research (PAR) in a study to improve the teaching of English as a second or additional language, promoted knowledge democracy. In the article, we pay special attention to how nine Senior Phase/Junior Secondary (Grade 7-9) school-teachers of English as a second or additional…

This study describes a number of action research projects conducted by educational managers at a teacher training institution in Uganda. The central research question was: how can we use action research to develop educational managers' responsibility for whole school development? The study participants included 12 managers (6 females and 6 males)…

This study explored the use of collaborative action research (CAR) in a year-long professional development (PD) for global climate change (GCC) education. The purpose was to understand how high school science teachers' engagement in CAR affected their classroom practice. The teachers exchanged stories of practice, shared and tried out new ideas in…

Formative assessment (FA) is an important tool for supporting student learning. It provides learners with information about their learning process and supports them through feedback on how to improve their learning. Although it is recognized by secondary school teachers as crucial to language assessment, the integration of FA in their second…

This paper explores the processes and outcomes of an action research project, which utilised action learning sets to explore the experiences of a community of academics, who promote pedagogical enhancement in a UK university. Five academics acted as participant action researchers in a longitudinal study exploring the issues they face within their…

Working with ethnoracially diverse student groups is a reality in most K-12 classrooms. However, studies of the impacts of professional development for cultural responsiveness have tended to use a range of approaches such as action research, video reflections, and coaching, making it difficult to tease apart the effects of each one. The purpose of…

This article examines the use of first-person action research to improve the facilitation of a continuing professional development (CPD) project in Early Years leadership. The intention of this project was to support Early Years Leaders (EYLs) from a diverse range of Early Years settings in NW England to improve their practice and hence strengthen…

This study examined in-service teachers who engaged in a year-long professional development (PD) course that focused on conducting participatory action research (PAR) related to mathematics and science instruction. We focused on how the teachers perceived the PAR process and its impact on their practice and performance throughout the course. A…

Action Research is now frequently practiced and promoted as a form of continuing professional development for language teachers, with recent studies reporting many benefits for those who engage in Action Research. Less frequently reported, but equally as important for sustainability, are the wider impacts of Action Research engagement on teachers'…