Action Research: An Ethno-methodological Perspective

Action Research is a tool for professional development which gained considerable momentum in language teaching domain. Effective and meaningful professional development programmes involve teachers in the constant process of learning about their practices, discovering and using their own potential. The strategies employed in action research are found to be one of the best options that can engage teachers in meaningful self-improvement. It is a discovery process in which the teacher investigates the issue on focus, carries out and implements some actions in the classroom. Just in opposite direction of the traditional practice of ‘from theory to practice’, action research moves ‘from practice to theorizing’. Reflection which is the essence of the philosophy at work behind, action research has a crucial role in improving the learning process and enhancing professional development. Reflection involves cognition, critical thinking, evaluation and problem solving. Action research continuously prompts these processes. This article attempts to project how action research functions as a two-pronged phenomenon: (i) a pedagogic tool, whose impact will explicitly be felt on the learner, and (ii) as a means of continuous professional development, which leaves an implicit but, long-lasting change in the teacher. It is also pointed out in the paper, how action research can alter the physical and mental environment of learning and teaching through an ethno-methodological functioning—the teacher and the learners living in the same environment and getting immersed in the same experience.