Action Research

This week, through watching the introduction video and reading the four excerpts from the two course texts, I have gained a whole new understanding of action research. I honestly did not know what it was (or had a different idea in my head) before reading the texts. What I have learned is that action research is the process of looking inside of one's own self. One must examine his/her own practices, how he or she leads and make decisions on what is working and what is not working. Action research pushes a leader to collaborate with other professionals and really delve into a personal pursuit to make changes and decisions based on what he/she finds. The idea of internally examining leadership skills as opposed to buying the latest book on leadership research is a fairly exciting idea. By challenging a leader to take an honest look and evaluate his/her own performance, an exciting change to the leadership culture can take place. I plan on beginning this immediately. I almost always look to the latest research on how to be a technology director. I buy new books when they come out and read what other people have to say. But, after learning about action research, I plan to examine how I am performing at my own job. I will examine what leadership skills I am performing well and which ones I am not. I am excited at this idea and the thought of really changing the way I lead.