Local responsibility for school development in Sweden has led to new possibilities for teacher improvement. This paper looks at using the potential of action research generated by the decentralization for the inservice training of teachers. Decentralization offered opportunities for inservice development work through special funding for projects, the opportunity for teachers to take responsibility for their own inservice training, and increased teacher cooperation. A 2-year project served as a model for using action research for inservice teacher training. The project had two main themes: local development work is an essential part of school development, and inservice training should focus on the teachers' own situation, not on a general teaching method. Through a series of seminars, researchers helped teachers define their field of interest and formulate their research problem, and then offered guidance to the teachers as their projects proceeded. During the second year, a symposium was held at which the teachers presented the results of their research to other teachers. The seminar series provided help and support throughout the process. (ND)