The BERA initiative on promoting Close-to-Practice (CtP) research raises new challenges for action research, particularly as uncertainties about the standing and rigour of action research were expressed in the report of the education panel for the 2015 Research Excellence Framework (REF) in the United Kingdom. The work of tackling these challenges…

In this article, we illustrate and address how anti-Blackness and adultism work together in an interlocking form of oppression we call anti-Black adultism. Situated in Amina's (youth author) lived experiences of school, we offer counter-stories that show the ways that educators employed anti-Black adultism to render Amina's civic life incompatible…

The last 20 years have seen a growing interest in researching pedagogy in Higher Education with action researchers playing a part in this growth. However, there are few studies that analyse the educational influences in learning of the action researcher in their own pedagogy in Higher Education. Hence the focus of this paper on enhancing…

The SEL Innovations series aims to help the field imagine new, more expansive and equitable approaches to social and emotional learning (SEL) and wellness to ensure that all children, adolescents, and adults feel safe, supported, and seen so that they can thrive. This is the second report in a series exploring innovations in SEL. The purpose of…

While teachers and practitioners are increasingly expected to conduct research on their own practice, there is a lot of educational research that is not directly involved in practice. This often leads to unilateral research perspectives on educational practice. Therefore, this article calls for an alternative model of researching educational…

The authors argue for the importance of practice in the professional lives of literacy teachers. Literacy practices and teaching practices are imbued with intentionality, context (temporal, social, political, and cultural), perspective, and outcomes. The goal of this article is to open a dialogue that could begin to normalize a theory of practice…

From the very first moment action research started to be used in the social research field until now, it has presented significant variations. Action research looks like a mosaic of theoretical and methodological approaches, named differently from time to time and/or from place to place: for example, practitioner inquiry, practitioner research,…

This article traces the development of Inclusive Inquiry, a new approach to the promotion of inclusion in schools. It explains how this builds on a programme of research carried out by the authors over a period of 20 years. Central to the approach is dialogue amongst teachers and their students about how to make lessons more inclusive. This…

Definitions of teaching quality differ across jurisdictions and have evolved over time. Drawing on a study of five high-achieving countries with strong supports for teachers' professional learning and practice, this article describes the perspectives on good teaching rooted in standards for entry, preparation, and practice. These nations…

This article involves the work of four language educators/researchers collaborating on an ongoing longitudinal multilingual participatory action research (PAR) project in a Bachelor of Arts (BA) language teaching program in Oaxaca, Mexico. Overall, this PAR project aims at the co-construction of social justice in ELT in Mexico. In particular, it…

This paper will question the notion of research, evidence and tools within a practitioner enquiry orientated practice. Basing the discussion within the current education research and policy context in the UK and the wider Global Education Reform Movement, I will ask questions about how a practitioner enquiry frame as located within Scottish…

This article explores what it means for teachers to engage in and evaluate students' character education, by examining the connections between action research and Aristotelian virtue ethics. These connections are explored in two ways. Firstly, the article examines what perspective action research has on how moral education, understood in an…

In this short paper I examine whether obtaining the capability to change practice can be solely achieved through reflective action research, and how. I take as our framework of analysis that offered by Aristotelian thought, especially in the discussion of powers and potential. I conclude that action research as a way of changing practice cannot be…

The basic aim of this paper is to discuss the concept 'Knowledge Democracy' (KD) and what it can mean in the school context, its implications on knowledge production and dissemination and on the educational practices. We try to enrich this discussion by presenting action research projects to provide case studies of how thinking about KD can…

This article discusses the use of critical and sociocultural approaches to more dynamically 'internationalise' higher education in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China. The article explores the integration of critical pedagogy and sociocultural learning theory in developing more engaging and rigorous education practices for…