Action Research as Iterative Design: Implications for English Language Education Research

Abstract

Methodological processes used in action research are essentially iterative, exploratory, and cyclical. Therefore, a researcher utilizing action research must be prepared to adapt the design of the study creatively according to the evolving circumstances and evidence emerging from the research, and in the light of the nature of the participants’ responses. In addition, the researcher must consider how she or he is positioned, both as a participant in a community of practice, and as a researcher of that community over various periods of time. The researcher must therefore be prepared to (re)examine research decisions continually from theoretical, pragmatic, and empirical perspectives. This chapter illustrates these processes and challenges by showing how a qualitative researcher, working in Australia with participants who were former refugees learning English and in particular, developing their English literacy, negotiated among the research questions that developed, the theoretical frameworks that informed the research, the roles and relationships among the research participants, and the emerging data that were manifested over the course of the year-long investigation. The authors also discuss in what ways the research decisions were dependent on the conditions operating in the research site and what adjustments needed to be made to manage these conditions.