Week 3: Reflections on Reading

 Since I posted last week about Chapter 2 of Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcher, this week I will focus and reflect on Chapter 3 of that same book.

Chapter 3 is entitled “The Road Map” and for good reason too.  It shows us the various ways in which we as action researchers can obtain data to drive our research into action.  It all begins with a plan.

Strategy 1	Quantitative Measures Of Student Achievement (Standardized Test Scores, Assessment Measures, Grades) We assess students everyday and in every way.  This is data! Use it to your advantage.  For me that means, TELPAS, TAKS/STAAR, ITBS, district benchmarks for BOY, MOY, EOY, DRA, etc. Data drives everything that means change.
Strategy 2	Field Notes According to Dana, “Field notes are not interpretations; rather, they focus on capturing what is occurring without commenting on why the action is occurring or judging a particular act.” Field notes can be a script, conversational notes, drawings, dialogue (Dana, 2009). How your field notes take shape depend on what you are researching. Using field notes can help the researcher capture the moment.
Strategy 3	Interviews Administrators are constantly being asked for a “moment” of their time. This can be at times overwhelming and can burnout an administrator (Dana, 2009). This strategy calls for the reverse to occur.  The administrator is doing the interviewing to help in the decision making or in a wondering about the building community. This helps the administrator gain a grasp on what others are thinking and an opportunity for the administrator to reflect and perhaps derive a wonder from it.
Strategy 4	Documents/Artifacts/Student Work The type of strategy provides an insight into the daily happenings of a school.  Generating a paper trail of student work, curriculum guides, textbooks, teacher manuals, children’s literature, IEPs, district memos, parent newsletters, progress reports, teacher planning books, written lesson plans, and correspondence to and from parents, specialists, and you as the principal (Dana, 2009).
Strategy 5	Digital Pictures Capturing photos in the new age technology is simple, quick and easy. The development and process of photos is even quicker. You don’t have to wait to the roll of film to have it developed and processed. Photography is immediate and is still a great way of telling a story.
Strategy 6	Video As in Strategy 5: Digital Pictures, video plays a vital role in capturing the moment with nothing added to or inferring of as in a photograph. It is the essence of “being there” and knowing and being able to tell the story by what is said and done in the video.
Strategy 7	Reflective Journals and/or Weblogs Journals and weblogs are one in the same with the exception that journals may not always be easily accessible for immediate reflection. Weblogs on the other hand can be updated by simply logging into it from any internet connection.  Weblogs can be in the form of a blog or a website. It chronicles your reflections. Either way it helps the principal-researcher gain new insight to everyday happenings and it provides for a way to reflect at the end of a day or week.
Strategy 8	Surveys Surveys give teachers, parents, and students a space to share their thoughts and opinions about any number of happenings in the school building (Dana, 2009). There are several ways to present surveys but the most important thing to keep in mind is that before people can complete a survey, there needs to be the element of trust. Knowing that whatever is said will not come back to haunt the person completing the survey.  Programs such as Survey Monkey can provide such anonymity if necessary.
Strategy 9	Literature Researchers whether traditional or action cannot conduct research without searching for similar types of studies and their results.  It is vital tool to your wondering, inquiry or research. Dana (2009) says, “To collect literature as a form of data for your inquiry, you will need to figure out which pieces of literature connect to your wonderings and will give you insights as your study is unfolding.”
Summary What form or how much data will help you in your wondering or inquiry?  Optimally, data collection proceeds until you reach a state where you are no longer gaining insights into your wondering or question and no new information is emerging (Dana, 2009).

Dana, N.F. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: The principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.