Kazakhstani example suggests it should not be a quick process. We can refine and
adapt action research to attune more harmoniously with the research on continuing
professional development and teacher learning.
The second key element is the establishment of professional learning commu-
nities. This is something long advocated within the action research tradition but in
the two examples of successful reform these were given prominence and influence
over the reform implementation. It is in these communities that the assumptions
about practice and conditions can be tested out. It is here too that the cultural
assumptions and traditions will emerge. Edwards ( 2011 ) argues that using cultural
historical analysis involves the explicit and transparent discussion of values, beliefs
and traditions. This helps to ensure that there is afit, or afit can be found, between
the ways of working with teachers and the traditions. It leads to a conscious process
of planning based on reality rather than aspiration.
The use of action as a strategy for reform is a process of engaging in ways that
are respectful of teacher autonomy in all the domains—the professional, personal
and political dimensions of action research. It can be a transformative process for
individual teachers who are making sense of and creating new practices, it is a
deeply personal process which requires support and sophisticated facilitation and it
can address some of the political aspects of reform, but only if it is integrated from
inception and planned with the feedback being taken seriously to modify and
amend from what is learned.
References
BERA-RSA (British Educational Research Association and The Royal Society for the Arts).
(2014).Research and the teaching profession. Building the capacity for a self-improving
education system. Final Report of the BERA-RSA Inquiry into the role of research in teacher
education. http://www.bera.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/BERA-RSA-Research-Teaching-
Profession-FULL-REPORT-for-web.pdf
Bridges, D., Yakavets, N., Shamatov, D., & Kurakvayev, K. (2015).Pedagogics, teaching
methods, practicum...and collaborative action research: Constructs and the construction of
teachers’professional knowledge in Kazakhstan.Presented at European Educational Research
Association annual conference, Budapest, September 2015.
Chandler-Grevett, A., Daubney, A., & Webb, R. (2014).Integrated programme of development.
Strand 10/13 extension: Independent evaluation of action research element report
(Unpublished report). University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education: Cambridge, England.
Cordingley, P. (2015).‘Evidence about teachers’professional learning and continuing professional
development. In C. McLaughlin, P. Cordingley, R. McLellan, & V. Baumfield (Eds.),Making
a difference: Turning teacher learning inside out.Cambridge, England: Cambridge University
Press.
Edwards, A. (2011).Cultural historical activity theory.British Educational Research Association
on-line resource.https://www.bera.ac.uk/researchers-resources/publications/cultural-historical-
activity-theory-chat. Accessed on November 16, 2015.
Fullan, M. (2009). Large scale reform comes of age.Journal of Educational Change, 10, 101 – 113.
Fullan, M. (2013).Great to excellent: Launching the next stage of Ontario’s education agenda.
Downloaded on November 5, 2015, fromhttp://www.michaelfullan.ca
594 C. McLaughlin