Welcome to Action Research ET 8024

First and foremost, congratulations on your sensational initiative, enthusiasm, and effort to develop your action research plan. As promised, we are trying to help support your action research project, along with assisting your internship experiences, and we have created a Faculty Intern/Action Research Blog for your particular section in this course.

With your Faculty Intern/Action Research Section Blog, you can post your blog address and share comments about the progress of your action research and your internship, and this will provide a location for faculty members assigned to your group to support your progress in your research and in the program.

We plan to have a faculty member assigned to your section by mid-September, so be sure to check this Blog and add it to your blog links. We believe this will continue to be an important source for sharing your action research and receive valuable feedback from our faculty.

We will continue to revise and refine the large Faculty Action Research Blog where we have identified 10 topic areas. We are trying to find the best means of sharing your action research progress while you review how others are pursuing their similar action research projects. We will be sending information to you regarding our revision of this topical blog!

Please create a new post:
• sign in and share your Action Research blog name and blog address
• provide your frequently used email address and a contact telephone number
• provide an email address, and if possible, telephone number for your site supervisor(s)

Your section faculty member will use this Faculty Intern/Action Research Section Blog to communicate with you as you continue your work on your action research plan and your internship. The faculty member will be using a variety of means (e.g., Web Conferences, emails, telephone calls, Skype, etc.) to continually communicate with you, and periodically to communicate with your site supervisor(s) to discuss your progress in the internship, implementing the action research plan, and overall suggestions regarding the Leadership preparation program.

We will expect you to post on this blog once a week and this will be the location for you to communicate to the assigned faculty member who will be making sure that you are completing all of the work in the internship as well as assist you with the action research! Please note that we are also asking you to grant permission to us to share your Action Research blog information with other faculty and doctoral students. We assure you none of your research will be shared or published without your participation and consent. If data from the action research project and program evaluation are used, confidentiality will be maintained. And as we have emphasized, you are participating in laboratories of leadership and learning, and we will work with you to help you prepare submissions to present and/or publish your action research project, findings and recommendations to professional associations (e.g., Texas Association of School Administrators – TASA; Texas Association of Secondary School Principals – TASSP; Texas Elementary Principal and Supervisors Association – TEPSA; Texas ASCD; Texas Council on Staff Development; International Society for Technology in Education, ISTE; and specialized associations – Bilingual, G/T, Special Education).

Remember, the faculty assigned to your section will be available to assist you with some of the policy and procedure issues, and please ask for guidance. If you cannot reach the assigned faculty, feel free to contact any of the professors listed below since we are all familiar with the action research course and internship.

Wishing you the very best!
Dr. Steve Jenkins, Dr. Elvis Arterbury, Dr. Gary Martin, Dr. Kay Abernathy, Dr. Lu Stephens, Cindy Cummings, and other faculty who will be working with this follow-up initiative