ABSTRACT
In this chapter we want to present some action research studies whose authors have “gone public” by writing up their work for publication in a journal. In Chapter 8 we suggested that before you start writing you need to decide on the possible audiences you are writing for and the criteria you might use in planning your writing. The studies we want to share with you in this chapter are intended to help you make these decisions by providing examples that may suggest ideas to you. Since 1993 the international journal, Educational Action Research (EAR) has published articles by action researchers in education and across other professions, particularly in the fields of health, social work and community development (www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/09650792.asp). All of us who are authors of this book have been involved as Editors or Associate Editors of EAR for many years so it is perhaps understandable that of the eight articles we have chosen, five were published in EAR and three from other journals – the Harvard Education Review, the British Educational Research Journal and Social Work Education. They illustrate a wide range of approaches to action research used in projects in education, health and community development carried out in five different countries – the USA, Canada, England, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. We hope that by reading the summaries of these articles and our commentaries on them you will be inspired to write your own articles for publication either in EAR or other journals. We hope you might also download the articles from the journal websites and read them in full so that you can see whether or not you agree with our comments.
