Primary School Teachers & Action Research: Propensity & Challenges

Abstract

To enhance the quality of education, teachers are encouraged to develop their profession through different mechanisms among which reflective practice & undertaking research to generate evidence for their professional development are mentioned. Thus, the purpose of the study was to investigate the extent of Bahir Dar town primary school teachers’ involvement in action research. To realize this, mixed methods research design (triangulation) was employed as to allege pragmatic philosophical framework. Data were collected from primary & secondary sources & two-staged cluster sampling method was used to select representatives from the sources. Accordingly, 4 primary schools were selected by simple random sampling among 15 primary schools in Bahir Dar town. Then, 100 teachers & 4 principals were selected through simple random sampling through & comprehensive sampling respectively. Besides, 8 action research reports were selected through simple random sampling from the sampled schools. Questionnaire & interview were employed for teachers & principals respectively. Finally, the quantitative & qualitative data were analyzed through descriptive statistics & summative content analysis respectively. The analyzed data disclosed that most of Bahir Dar town primary school teachers’ involvement in action research is below expectation though they have positive attitude towards its benefit considering conducting action research as their responsibility. Lack of financial support, lack of encouragement & morale, lack of practical training, lack of motivation, lack of theoretical knowledge & lack of confidence have been identified as major hindrances. Lack of continuous, updated & adequate training, absence of follow up & deficiency of stationary materials were also found as additional problems. Therefore, if the educational attempts are to produce functionally literate human power by developing sense of being a change agent, the observed barriers has to be minimized; if not omitted, by taking immediate actions in collaboration with educational expertise & concerned stakeholders.

Keywords: Primary school, action research, quality education, teacher’ attitude