The Death of Homeroom

In education, the term “action research” may seem like an oxymoron.  You know, the literature term for a figure of speech that is self contradictory, for example pretty awful.    I say this because anytime someone at any of the schools I have ever worked at has promised to research to find a solution to a problem; it has rarely ended in any action.   As I read the first chapter, An Introduction to Action Research, from the book “Action Research: An Educational leader’s Gide to School Improvement,” I thought of one particular problem at a school that I had worked at that needed this call to action:  primetime or for lack of a better word “homeroom.”   Over the years, the use of time during our “primetime” had become heavily debated.   Was it really accomplishing the sense of community and belonging, a sense of home base, and the teaching good quality character?   Were our teachers buying into this idea?   Were the students buying into the idea?  Could we put those minutes to better use in our classrooms?    Finally the decision to spread the minutes out among each instructional hour was made and that was the “death of primetime.”

Was this the best solution?   Was this in best practice? To take primetime (the “go to teacher” and main advocate for a middle school student) away?  I don’t know.   I didn’t feel as though I had enough experience to speak up.   Now that I have read this chapter, as a teacher, I feel much more confident in helping in a situation like this.  Reflecting back at the problem, it was the perfect opportunity to use the evaluation route of action research.  According to the author, the goal of evaluation research is to assess the quality of a particular practice or program in the school.   I could have used this chapter as a starting point by determining how to approach the problem.   I could have helped out with the evaluation process by collecting opinions of the other teachers, calling peers at other school to ask what they do.  Being a true science teacher at heart, I understand the importance of research and data driven decisions, I was just never sure of how to apply it to educational policy.  

Well here’s my next question.  If action research is such a common practice among educational leaders and teachers, how come none of the more experience confident teachers spoke up and tried to solve the problem.   The author addresses the most common complainants.  “Who has the time?’’ “Who understands all that university statistical mumble jumble?”   The use of bulleted list, diagrams, and multiple summaries throughout the chapter really narrowed it down for me and solidified the basic points of the concept of “action research.”  Now that I have a clearer picture of how to start and what it encompasses, maybe I can begin to change my meaning of “action research” for myself. 

Works Cited

Glanz, J. (2003). Action Reasearch: An Educational Leader's Guide to School Improvement. MA: Chirstopher-Gordon.