Action Research Fellowship
The Action Research Fellowship programme offers a fantastic opportunity to work with academic researchers from the University of Oxford Department of Education on a specific priority area. This form of professional development is open to individual teachers (and indeed Teaching Assistants or other support staff ) at all career stages. It is based on the idea of practical experimentation informed by critical engagement with existing research. The programme might provide a first step towards engaging in a full Master’s in Learning and Teaching, but is equally valuable in its own right for tackling a particular issue of concern to you and/or your school.
The scheme usually involves a group of 8-10 teachers (from one school or a small cluster of schools able to work closely together) each addressing a specific issue of concern related to their practice, over the course of two or three terms. Different schools engage in the programme in different ways, sometimes providing in-school guidance as well as support from a ‘critical friend’ from the University Department of Education, but the common features of each programme are:
- A joint introductory meeting establishing the principles of action research as an approach to professional learning and exploration of participants’ particular concerns;
- Regular visits by University-based ‘critical friend’ to support individual teachers in their schools, clarifying the focus of each project, the strategies to pursue and nature of evidence to collect and analyse;
- Suggested reading of 2 or 3 core articles (and further suggestions) with direction;
- Email and Skype/ phone support as needed
- An obligation on the participants to share their findings with other teachers – through a small-scale presentation evening hosted by the University Department of Education and a summary of the work made available through the Deanery website.
A wide range of examples of previous Action Research Fellowship projects can be found in the Research Activities section of the website.
Precise costs vary depending on the number of teachers involved in the group but tend to be no more than £600 each. To find out more contact us.