Our Context

The Grand Erie District School Board is a medium sized rural, semi-urban school district in the province of Ontario in Canada. The district encompasses an area of 4,067 sq. km. in south-central Ontario. We employ 2000 instructional staff for 70 schools for children ages 4 to 14 and 16 schools for students ages 14 to 20, with a total student population of 30,000. Jackie is superintendent with the portfolios of Curriculum, Assessment and Special Education. Cheryl is principal of a rural elementary school of 252 students, grades Kindergarten to 8. In our respective roles, we have conducted our own action research inquiries and facilitated action researchers locally and globally. The values-based inquiry process in our school system began ten years ago with a group of five teachers and two administrators. As a result of their experience, the idea of practitioners researching their practice began to spread. Since 1995, the numbers of action researchers has steadily increased so that now there is a critical mass of researchers (Moffatt, 2002) and an evidential base of practitioner knowledge.

Our Argument

To provide evidence to support our claims to have improved our practice in supporting teachers as they research their practice to improve student learning, we will describe and explain how we have built a culture of inquiry, reflection and scholarship in our board through:

1. Sustained Systemic Support
2. An Evidential Base
3. School District Systems and Procedures
4. Distributed and Sustainable Leadership
5. A Global Influence

Building A Culture of Inquiry, Reflection and Scholarship

1. Sustained Systemic Support for Action Research

Systemic support means building a culture within the school and school board that supports action research. Each year, over the years 1995 to 2004, we have worked to build a culture of inquiry, reflection, and scholarship (Delong, 2002). Living a value of inquiry and reflection inherently means that all members of the organization question and challenge decisions based on hierarchy and assumptions that cannot answer questions like, "How do you know?" Such activity can be disturbing for those who have not yet thought through their values and assumptions. The nature of this form of action research is embedded in a values-based inquiry where teachers ask the question, "Am I living my values fully in my practice?"

Systemic support also means dedicating financial resources directly to classroom research. In the beginning in Grand Erie, we had bits of money in different budgets. Then we drew on a system innovation budget for six years which meant that each year we were required to submit proposals for particular system research projects. Finally, a research budget was established in the district's base budget, broken down into a central fund, which supported central projects and networking groups, and funds for each of the families of schools. Systemic support means sustained school and school board support for researchers. In Grand Erie, this comes in a variety of forms including:

• five days each year of release time from teaching to focus on one's action research
• facilitated support during those five days, visits to observe in other teachers' classrooms, and meeting time with critical friends
• collaborative, supportive group meetings
• critical friends
• professional development sessions on aspects of conducting research
• opportunities to meet with experts in action research and content areas
• attendance at the Ontario Educational Research Conference
• access to books, still and video cameras, tape recorders, and other resources to support one's research
• opportunities to share one's research at workshops, conferences and in publications.

Currently, there are a large number of research projects in our school system based on various topics with many leaders.

The 2003-4 Grand Erie Action Research Groups are:

Action Research Project	Group Leader(s)
Secondary Reading	Dave Abbey, Coordinator; Phil Midgley, Vice-Principal
Elementary Writing	Bill Valoppi, Coordinator
Social Skills	Peggy Blair, Coordinator; Liana Thompson, Consultant
Learning Disabilities	Carol MacKenzie, Consultant
Junior Writing-Simcoe	Deb Opersko, Consultant
Junior Writing-Brantford	Lori Barkans, Consultant
Classroom Management	Herb Taylor, Consultant
Information Technology	Christine Stewart, Consultant
French	Sandra House, Consultant
Autism	Peggy Blair, Coordinator
Roots of Empathy	Heather Knill-Griesser, Vice-Principal
Brant Action Research Network	Cheryl Black, Principal Heather Knill-Griesser,Vice-Principal

Research money is available for individual projects from two dedicated base budgets -- Family of Schools' Research and System Action Research -- as well as being embedded in many curriculum and special education projects. In addition, external sources of funding have come from projects like the Roots of Empathy program, "a program designed to teach children about parenting and human development and to nurture the growth of empathy" (Gordon, 2000).

As evidence of improvement, sustained support has improved the quality and nature of conversations in projects. Diane Morgan, Educational Consultant and former curriculum leader, has led research groups for the board for a number of years. After a support group meeting this year, Diane observed that the quality and depth of conversation by the researchers has become much more insightful. The level of conversation has deepened and broadened over the years as people become more comfortable with researching their own professional practice and as understanding about the research process increases (Morgan, 2004).

Evidence of Improved Student Learning

Connection between improved teacher practice and improved student learning is one that we would like to assume but we simply cannot. So we need to constantly remind ourselves to make that connection clear. We give two examples here but the three volumes of Passion In Professional Practice provide many more.

The first example to demonstrate this connection has been taken from a project written by Peggy Callaghan, a kindergarten teacher. Peggy came to the teaching profession later in her life after having supervised and taught adults. She thoroughly enjoys teaching children and watching their personal growth. Her opportunity to join a group doing action research was serendipitous and resulted in both personal and professional development.

Peggy's Question: How can I improve my practice in the use of a systematic phonics program to continue to provide stimulating opportunities for my experienced Senior Kindergarten children while keeping the Junior children engaged in the learning?

Peggy used of a combination of videotapes, personal journals, external testing and validation by colleagues, parents and students. Note that Peggy uses pseudonyms for participants' names to protect their identity.

In 2000-2001, in my first action research project, the Kindergarten students made significant gains. Bonnie Kutsche, our early literacy teacher, tested 12 of the Senior Kindergarten children on their letter sound/names and was pleasantly surprised at the results. Two children knew all 25 of the single sounds, three confused only b or d, four lacked five or less sounds, one (hearing impaired and difficult to understand) knew 18 of the sounds and finally the youngest child of the group knew 16 of the 25 sounds tested (Black & Delong, 2002, pp. 46-48).

Colleagues provided some indication that changes in my practice coincided with a positive outcome for the Kindergarten students. When my colleague, Karen, was asked to work with a small group, including Kobe, an ESL child, and Kyle, a Senior, on the sounds of the Jolly Phonics flash cards, she remarked, "You are to be commended as a teacher. They know them all. My own S.K. (senior kindergarten) doesn't know those sounds" (Callaghan, Personal Communication/Reflective Journal entry Nov. 1, 2001).

Parents also have commented on the effectiveness of my use of the Jolly Phonics Program in helping their children to learn to read.

Students provided most of the evidence of the improved learning and sometimes I almost missed it. Sammy taught Alexis how to work independently in her daily plan book. Alexis sometimes made use of the gestures while Sammy sounded out words or said letter names. She internalized many of the letter sound/names and wrote some words more confidently without the gestures (Callaghan, Video, 55.3-49.40, 2002).

The second example is from a project by Christine Ryder. Christine is in her second year of teaching in the Grand Erie District School Board in the newly-created Autism Class at Greenbrier School. Prior to this, she taught with the Toronto District School Board in a congregated setting for students with Developmental Disabilities, many of whom had Autism. Previously, Christine worked two years for the W. Ross Macdonald School with Blind and Visually Impaired students.

Christine's Question: How can I use video and still photography to augment the learning of my autistic students and document the progress that they are making in the following areas: behaviour, communication, and social interaction?

In this example, we see Christine analyzing video of her classroom practice. She sees herself as a "living contradiction" (Whitehead, 1989) acting inconsistently with her own values. This is an example of a "story of ruin" (Lather in MacLure, 1996).

I was struck by the following statement by McNiff, Lomax, and Whitehead (1996) in You and Your Action Research Project. "Video will capture the non-verbal, as well as verbal images that are being sent. Video recordings can be used in most of the ways listed for photographs and audiotape but are probably better than the other two methods for capturing changes in behaviour in both individuals and groups. They have the advantage that you can set the camera, and video your own practice. This can often show oneself as a living contradiction" (p. 104).

This is precisely what I found upon reviewing my interaction on a particular day at calendar time. Autistic students need time to process information that is being shared with them, especially if the information is being presented through more than one modality. For example, I was showing a student two words to choose from, 'Monday' and 'Tuesday' (visual processing). I was also verbally saying the two words, one of which the students had to choose, as the representation of "yesterday" (auditory processing). When I counted how long in seconds I gave the student to respond, I realized it was not long enough. I also noted that the tone of my voice sounded impatient which really shocked me as I have always felt that I was good at keeping a calm, even tone to my voice when presenting materials to my students. Upon further reflection, I thought about the sensory issues that these students have. For example, a voice sounding louder than we think it is or sounds we cannot hear may distract these students. It made me realize, that perhaps the tone of my voice and the lack of response time I gave the students somehow interfered with their thinking and then their verbal output. I feel I caused them to freeze as I was not acting the way I normally did (discovered by going back and analyzing previous footage).

I also looked at other factors such as background noise the other students were making, if the educational assistants were talking, and how many students were flapping/tapping or moving their seats. To my surprise, I found there were answers here. In a class containing six Autistic students I tend to get used to the background self-stimulating noises the students make (humming, tapping, moaning etc). It becomes background noise that a neuro-typical brain is capable of processing, filtering, and subsequently ignoring. The Autistic brain often has great difficulty filtering out these background noises making learning new information a huge task indeed. Revisiting the video footage taken throughout the year made clear to me areas of my practice needing attention (Delong, Black & Knill-Griesser, 2004).

2. Publications, Organizations and Conferences

We begin with the significance of the evidential base of action research to transform systems. Catherine Snow's Presidential Address to AERA in 2001 on 'Knowing What We Know: Children, Teachers, Researchers', draws attention to the importance of developing procedures for systematizing practitioners' knowledge of education:

The .... challenge is to enhance the value of personal knowledge and personal experience for practice. Good teachers possess a wealth of knowledge about teaching that cannot currently be drawn upon effectively in the preparation of novice teachers or in debates about practice. The challenge here is not to ignore or downplay this personal knowledge, but to elevate it. The knowledge resources of excellent teachers constitute a rich resource, but one that is largely untapped because we have no procedures for systematizing it. Systematizing would require procedures for accumulating such knowledge and making it public, for connecting it to bodies of knowledge established through other methods, and for vetting it for correctness and consistency. If we had agreed-upon procedures for transforming knowledge based on personal experiences of practice into 'public' knowledge, analogous to the way a researcher's private knowledge is made public through peer-review and publication, the advantages would be great. For one, such knowledge might help us avoid drawing far-reaching conclusions about instructional practices from experimental studies carried out in rarified settings. Such systematized knowledge would certainly enrich the research-based knowledge being increasingly introduced into teacher preparation programs. And having standards for the systematization of personal knowledge would provide a basis for rejecting personal anecdotes as a basis for either policy or practice (Snow, 2001, p.9).

Our response to Catherine Snow's desire to systematize and provide "procedures for accumulating such knowledge and making it public, for connecting it to bodies of knowledge established through other methods, and for vetting it for correctness and consistency" is embodied in the three volumes of "Passion In Professional Practice". It is a contribution to the necessary evidential base of research by practising teacher and administrator researchers as we conducted our own research on our practice as a principal and superintendent and supported others to do the same in an emerging culture of inquiry, reflection and scholarship.

Passion in Professional Practice and Web Site

We have the clear expectation of that the researchers that we support will write up and share their findings. A vital component of action research is writing about the research and sharing it with peers. This is done for three reasons. First, there is the opportunity to test the learning and look for the "phenomenological nod"(Van Manen, 1990) of peers who recognize the probability of the situation occurring. Second, peers may ask questions and offer suggestions that can support, strengthen and expand the learning of the researcher and the quality of the report. Finally, presenting the work of action researchers, adds to the professional knowledge base and narrows the gap between theory and practice.

Engaging in the writing process works differently for many people. As a facilitator, it is important to develop a relationship with fellow researchers in order to help them determine which process best suits their learning style. Some people work best by organizing their work into chunks and write up the sections as they feel ready. Others prefer to journal and reflect then write the final paper when they have a grasp of the overall project. Still others create an outline so they understand the larger project, then fill in the sections as they are ready. The writing process is essential because a different depth of reflection is achieved when preparing to share ideas. Also, more learning can actually take place as the action researcher notices other connections and growth not apparent without reflection.

We are seeing more teachers who choose to research their professional practice continue with a second and a third project. Cheryl is an example. The process of supporting teachers to have faith in their knowledge of their practice is evident in the three volumes of action research in Grand Erie – Passion In Professional Practice (Delong, 2001; Black & Delong, 2002; Delong, Black & Knill-Griesser, 2003).

These three volumes are available electronically here on our website: www.actionresearch.ca as well as five Masters projects and Jackie's Ph.D., other papers and presentations that we have created and links to other sites.

The Ontario Action Researcher

Our electronic journal in partnership with Nipissing University is in its fourth volume -- The Ontario Action Researcher (www.unipissing.on.ca/oar), which Dr. Ron Wideman and Jackie created in 1999 and Cheryl and Kurt Klassen now edit provides another opportunity for action researchers to have their work reviewed and shared.

Action Research: A Guidebook

The book that we have just written with Dr. Ron Wideman (Delong, Black & Wideman, 2004) contributes to an evidential base of action research in our district and in our province. In the foreward to this new text, Jack Whitehead says:

"Reading this text and being asked to write the foreword is a source of much pleasure. This is because I can feel the passion for improving student learning of the writers. The passion is expressed in ways that resonate with values that I associate with hope for the future of individual learners and for humanity as a whole. The editors, Jackie Delong, Cheryl Black and Ron Wideman have responded to a need that emerged in their own lives and action research as they worked to improve the quality of student learning through supporting the professional growth of teachers. This need was to produce a text that bridges the gap between theoretical and practical accounts of educational enquiries of the kind, 'How do I improve what I am doing?' I think they have succeeded in a way that will captivate your imagination and connect with the values that give meaning and purpose to your own life and contributions in education" (p.ii).

The book includes examples in each chapter to illustrate the practical application of the action research process and the "resident knowledge that we need to get recorded on paper" (Dewey, 1929, p. 10 in Hiebert, Gallimore & Stigler, 2002, p. 12.

Ontario Educational Research Council

We are both active in the sustaining of the Ontario Educational Research Council and focusing its directions on action research – Jackie is Past President and Cheryl is current President. The inclusion of action research has breathed new life into the organization. We now have four partner school boards with representation on the executive to ensure its sustainability for the future. Our website www.oerc.net shares our mission, executive members, newsletter and conference details.

At the Ontario Education Research Conference in November, 2003, over half of the presenters were from our school board but also included were new partners brought into the action research community. There were presenters from Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and the Eastern Townships. We also held a pre-conference day with Jack Whitehead for thirty-six people currently engaged in research. A total of 136 teachers and administrators from four Canadian provinces participated in the full conference. We are currently planning for November 4-5, 2004 at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario.

3. School District Systems and Procedures

In the Grand Erie District School Board, research is part of the implementation of initiatives and of the performance review processes. It is part of the culture of inquiry and reflection where claims of improvement are challenged with questions like, "How is this helping student learning?" and "How do you know?"

Teacher Performance Appraisal (TPA), Annual Learning Plans (ALP) and Action Research

In an attempt to improve the quality of education, the government of Ontario in our province implemented a new teacher appraisal system. As a result, each teacher must undergo a performance appraisal every three years. It is the responsibility of the principal to do the appraisal. In addition, each teacher is responsible for submitting an annual learning plan (ALP) with their goals for their professional learning every year. Groups of action researchers who are able to support each other as they work through similar issues in their respective classrooms are created from those teachers who are working on similar areas of improvement in their annual plans.

The following is an example of one such case. Paul Harris, a teacher at Cheryl's school articulated a desire to improve his classroom management. A curriculum consultant for the board, knowing Cheryl's experience in action research, informed her that he was starting a group for intermediate teachers interested in improving their classroom management. With that information, Cheryl was able to encourage that teacher to join the group and thereby add to the resources available to him in his research. Reading material was provided as a starting point and because all of the teachers were working in Grade 7 or Grade 8 classrooms, they were able to share ideas about techniques that worked for them.

In the role of principal, Cheryl has many responsibilities and thus being the sole facilitator for a new action researcher is difficult. Learning the relatively new role of principal while trying to build relationships within the school community means that she frequently feels reactive rather than proactive and unable to make the time she would like to sufficiently support her staff member as he researches his classroom practice. However, as a secondary support and critical friend, she is able to act as a sounding board and offer some additional support for the researcher. Most important, though, is that she models the behaviour by researching her own practice and builds that culture of inquiry in the school.

Paul is researching his practice and looking for ways to improve his classroom management using the action research methodology and completing his Annual Learning Plan (ALP). Measuring the effectiveness of classroom management strategies would be very difficult but if sufficient curriculum is covered, a higher percentage of assignments are completed, and Paul is less tired at the end of every day, chances are management strategies are being successful. The following journal entry demonstrates Cheryl's role as critical friend with her grade 7 teacher:

As Paul meets me in the hall or at the photocopier, the equivalent of the office water-cooler, he does not hesitate to tell me of his successes or frustrations. My constant refrain is, "Did you write that down?" He is reflecting and acting on a daily basis, but I fear that he is not documenting the roller coaster ride of improving classroom management in a Grade 7 classroom. In fact, just last week, he despaired of his students behaving to his standard, but was able to state emphatically, that the rate of completed work and assignments had increased substantially over that of last year's class. He was not seeing the forest for the trees. I had to remind him that his definition of classroom management did not only include better behaviour, but also adequately meeting the academic needs of all of his students so that they enjoyed increased success in school" (Personal journal entry, January 31, 2004).

It is the means that Jackie uses to appraise her staff of program leaders. To start, she encouraged one of the group to try this approach. Now it is the norm (Blair, P; Mackie, M.L. in Delong, Black & Knill-Griesser, 2003). During 2002-3, one of her curriculum coordinators, Bill Valoppi, decided to research his ability to support teachers in his role. He was comfortable with research, but decided that he probably would not be comfortable sharing his research. However, as is generally the case, as he reflected and wrote up his research allowing his learning to become evident, he changed his mind. He was one of the presenters at the November 27-28, 2003 OERC conference. Another member of the support staff, Peggy Blair, Coordinator of Special Education was interested in Autism. As part of her annual goal package, she formed a group of teachers working with students exhibiting autistic tendencies and supported their research and conversations for a year. That group, chaired by Peggy, also shared their knowledge in the publication (Delong, Black & Knill-Griesser, 2003) and presented at the OERC 2003 conference. One impact of that research is that Grand Erie has been awarded a provincial autism conference on May 14-15, 2004 in which these action researchers will share their knowledge.

Meaningful professional development has always been an issue for teachers. It is difficult to provide guest speakers who would have information applicable to all teachers. As a consequence, teachers have become somewhat skeptical about attending workshops or conferences. "Prescriptive professional development prevents many teachers from becoming autonomous learners who are responsible for their own professional growth" (Dillon-Peterson, 1986; Scribner, 1999 in Glazer, Abbott & Harris, 2004). The reason that conducting action research to complete the ALP is that the teacher chooses the area of investigation and the learning is meaningful for their lives in their classrooms.

Recently, we learned that at recruitment fairs where new teachers are recruited to our board, one of the selling points for the board was that teachers are supported to conduct action research and the publication Passion in Professional Practice was highlighted.

4. Sustainable Leadership

It is essential that the leaders of action research not only inspire teachers to ""How do I improve my practice?" but also to conduct action research themselves. It is not a process that you can understand by reading about it. You have to do it. The leadership must come from all layers of the organization but it will not be sustained without leaders at the senior executive level who model and support the action research processes (Delong, 2004).

Cheryl is modeling that behaviour in her Ph.D. research with Dr. Jack Whitehead at the University of Bath as she asks the question "How can I ensure my espoused values are evident in my practice as I define the role of elementary principal?" Leaders themselves must be investigating their practice and asking the How can I improve ... question. Jackie completed her Ph.D. in 2002. Her question was, "How can I improve my practice as a superintendent of schools and create my own living educational theory?" (Delong, 2002).

We are seeing evidence of deep systemic reform (Fullan, 2003) and sustainability that ensures a legacy of action research in our system and beyond. Leaders can develop sustainability within seven principles:

"How they approach, commit to and protect deep learning in their schools; by how they sustain themselves and others around them to promote and support that learning; by how they are able and encouraged to sustain themselves in doing so, so that they can persist with their vision and avoid burning our; by how they try to ensure the improvements they bring about last over time, especially after they are gone; by how they promote and perpetuate ecological diversity rather than standardized prescription in teaching and learning within their schools; and by how they pursue activist engagements with their environments" (Hargreaves & Fink, 2003).

In a "distributed form" of leadership (Delong, 2004), many leaders in Grand Erie provide the support for practitioner researchers (see p. 3 above for specific names). Supports are focused on sustained learning, on leadership succession, on collaborative learning, on creative and innovative approaches and on social issues in a values-based culture of inquiry.

When considering a means of embedding the change, it is important to note that the majority of the recently appointed leaders in the system, whether consultative staff or school administrators have conducted at least one action research project. Of the 2001 Master's cohort group, 80% have moved into leadership positions (principal, vice-principal, consultant, department head). These leaders then have the skills and knowledge to encourage and support the action research projects in their schools.

5. A Global Influence

Planning the support for action research has become embedded in everything we do across our school board and has expanded to other areas outside our board. Our attendance and presentations at various conferences over the last five years, such as the International Conference on Teacher Research, AERA, Western Quebec Conference on Teacher Research, has enabled us to meet action researchers from across the globe. These venues have provided us with opportunities to examine and share our progress over the five years. Some connections resulted in people from other provinces and countries attending the OERC conference in November.

In March of 2004, Jackie shared the action research experiences of Grand Erie in Tokyo, Japan at Waseda University and Japan Woman's University. She shared the knowledge of teachers published in Passion in Professional Practice Vol. II and Vol. III like Deb Opersko, Niki Bales, Melanie Rivers and Christine Ryder with the audiences. Besides sharing her knowledge of the "I at the centre of the research" form of action research (Whitehead, 1989; McNiff, 1996), she talked about the theory-practice gap:

"A consistent theme in discussions on education is the degree to which academic research influences teachers' classroom practice. A variety of reasons for the theory-practice gap are cited such as the esoteric nature of academic research and the quality of writing in academic articles. In the three volumes of Passion In Professional Practice (Delong, 2001; Black & Delong, 2002; Delong, Black & Knill-Griesser, 2003) we have evidence indicating that teachers make more use of academic research when they begin to conduct their own research in their own classrooms. They begin to reach out to other researchers to support or challenge their own findings. In fact, they seem to have a confidence in their own knowledge that encourages them to see other research as more accessible and less foreign to their experience" (Delong, 2004).

Jackie learned a great deal about the challenges inherent in carrying a message across cultures and countries that she will share in a paper currently under construction. A learning that was confirmed was that action research is best comprehended by doing it. Professor Sawamoto and a group of teachers will visit Grand Erie at the end of March, 2004. More stories to follow!

In Master's courses at Nipissing University, Jackie has been drawing on her experience in supporting action research in the district to encourage the reflective practice/ action research approach to developing theory in the Masters students (Magnani, S., 2003; Morrison, H., 2003). The expectation for the research projects is that the experience and knowledge of the masters' students be evident in the writing.

Jack Whitehead made this connection in the foreward to our book:

"I think the global significance of this text will be most appreciated when you connect, through the web-based version at www.actionresearch.ca to the living theories of other educators around the world. I think you will find that the expression and communication of the life-affirming energy of other educators and their students, in accounts of their learning in their local contexts, will help to build a global culture of inquiry. I am thinking of a culture of inquiry in which the values that provide hope for the future of humanity are being lived with greater influence in the lives of individuals and in the education of the social formations in which we work and live" (Delong, Black & Wideman, 2004).

In this reference, as well, Jack makes the connection to our desire to educate social formations in our own locale and across the globe. For that reason, we have invested heavily in our website www.actionresearch.ca to provide additional opportunities for its teachers to share the results of their action research with colleagues locally, nationally, and internationally.

Conclusion

Our last point is about the role of action research in career-long professional growth and to stress the importance of a distributed, sustainable form of leadership to be carrying out action research into our own educational influence in creating a culture of inquiry as a senior administrator and principal. One of our prime goals as educators is to produce graduates who have the capacity as adults to self-assess. How does that happen if not through the modelling of teachers and administrators who take responsibility for their own growth and improvement through a lifetime of questioning their effectiveness and setting their own standards of judgment and practice?

This approach to professionalism can only happen in a culture of inquiry and reflection with support systems to sustain it. We now want to finish by emphasizing that action research requires more than following someone else's guidelines or manuals. It is more about showing how your own embodied values are influencing your own learning and the learning of students and teachers.

When Michael Fullan (2003) talks about deep systemic reform, he says that he knows of no examples in existence. In California, where he says there was level one reform, only 10 per cent of the teachers were affected by the reform. Given that most of our work has been with elementary teachers and administrators, to date (and the work continues as listed above), 25-30% have been involved in action research. We are only beginning to make in-roads into the secondary schools.

Researching our professional practice has become second nature for us as leaders and for a critical mass of educators in our system. We plan for more annual publications to add to the professional knowledge base of teaching and learning. Embedding action research in the culture of the board is evident in our policies and procedures and thus we have "planned for our own obsolescence" (Hargreaves & Fink, 2003). In this age of accountability, action research is a very effective means of systematizing the collection of data to account for our improvements as professional educators and for the improvement of student learning.

References

Black, C. & Delong, J. (2002). Passion in Professional Practice: action research in Grand Erie, 2. Brantford: Grand Erie District School Board.

Cochran-Smith, M. & Lytle, S.L. (1999). Relationships of knowledge and practice: teacher learning in communities. In Iran-Nejad, A. and Pearson, P. Review of Research in Education. Washington: AERA.

Delong, J. (Ed.) (2001). Passion in Professional Practice: action research in Grand Erie. Brantford: Grand Erie District School Board.

Delong, J. (2004). Action Research Implemented in The Grand Erie District School Board: Impact on Teacher Development, Improvement and the Support System. Lecture to the Japanese Association of Educators for Human Development on the 29th February 2004. (available here on this site)

Delong, J., Black, C. & Knill-Griesser, H. (2003). Passion in Professional Practice: action research in Grand Erie, 3. Brantford: Grand Erie District School Board.

Delong, J., Black, C., & Wideman, R. (in press) Action Research: A Guidebook.

Fullan, M. (2003). Change forces with a vengeance. London: RoutledgeFalmer.

Glazer, C., Abbott, L., & Harris, J. (2004). A teacher-developed process for collaborative professional reflection. In Reflective Practice, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp33-46.

Gordon, M. (2000). The Roots of Empathy Program. In IMPrint, Vol, 27, Spring 2000.

Hargreaves, A. & Fink, D. (2003). The Seven Principles of Sustainable Leadership Unpublished paper for Educational Leadership. Alexandria: ASCD.

Hiebert, Gallimore & Stigler (2002). A knowledge Base for the Teaching Profession: What Would It Look Like and How Can We Get One? In Educational Researcher, Vol.31, No. 5, pp. 3-15. Arlington: AERA.

Magnani, S. (2003). Unpublished paper for Nipissing Univ. Masters course.

Moffatt, P. (2002). Prepared Address to Ontario Educational Research Council, December 5, 2002 in Brantford, Ontario.

Morrison, H. (2003). Fighting the Reform Machine: Student and Teacher Empowerment as a Remedy for Machine-Like Reform. Unpublished paper for Nipissing Univ. Masters course.

Morgan, D. (2004). How can I improve my support of teachers' action research projects? Unpublished paper for Passion in Professional Practice , Vol. IV in press.

Snow, C. (2001). Knowing what we know: children, teachers, researchers. In Educational Researcher, Vol. 30, No. 7. pp. 3-9.

Van Manen, M. (1990). Researching lived experience. New York: The State University of New York Press.