ABSTRACT
The difficult thing about doing action research is that you have to override most of what you’ve learned about research as an activity. In a traditional research culture you begin by framing a question, setting up a situation which might provide some information, collecting data which bears on the question, then writing up the results. Action research isn’t like that at all. The research activity begins in the middle of whatever it is you’re doing – something happens you didn’t expect … and you begin wondering what’s going on … The hardest part of beginning an action research project is developing the discipline to keep a written account of what’s happening, particularly when you have no idea of what you’re looking for. For unlike traditional research, action research begins not with a research question but with the muddle of daily work, with the moments that stand out from the general flow …
