A handbook for Exploratory Action Research

 Introduction 
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5
Style of presentation 
The book is targeted in particular at secondary and primary 
teachers (for whom few such books have been previously 
produced) and is written in a jargon-free, non-academic 
style, with many concrete examples. 
We have deliberately tried to make this book different from 
previous treatments of teacher-research in the field of ELT, 
aiming for as non-academic an approach as possible to 
reflect the idea that teacher-research is by teachers and
for teachers and their students, not needing to adhere to 
relatively dry or ‘academic’ norms of presentation or to 
standards of rigour which are imposed from outside.
As far as possible, then, rather than prescribing particular 
activities in the abstract or moving from theory to practice, 
we proceed from example to recommendation. The 
examples are real, not invented ones, and they come from 
teachers in relatively difficult circumstances, not in well-
resourced or otherwise privileged contexts. Thus, we refer 
throughout to cases from the Champion Teachers project,
in particular those represented in the companion Champion 
Teachers: Stories of Exploratory Action Research book,
1
which readers are encouraged to read to gain further 
understanding. Instructions and examples are accompanied 
by practical tasks, with answers to most of these being 
provided in an Answer Key at the back of the book. 
We wanted the book to be visually appealing (well-designed, 
and including illustrations and photographs) in order to 
enhance its accessibility, given that the idea of carrying out 
‘research’ can be off-putting to teachers, who may feel that
it is not ‘for’ them.
How to use this book
The book has been written to be used by teachers working 
on their own; in self-sustaining groups of teachers or mentee 
groups; within teacher associations supporting teacher-
research; or in pre-service or in-service teacher education 
programmes. The only assumption is that readers have some 
current classroom contact with students, since tasks will 
require reflection on current teaching experience. 
Ideally, you will find someone else to interact with about the 
contents and to answer tasks together with. If not, try to 
engage with the book actively and carry out tasks in your 
mind, checking answers in the back of the book whenever 
you see the ‘@’ symbol.
Although the book does not constitute a full introduction to 
‘Research Methods’, our own experience with pre-service as 
well as in-service teachers has shown us that engaging in 
Exploratory Action Research represents a good, practical 
first step towards more academic research methods training 
and research engagement. This, of course, is not the major 
aim of the book, which is to introduce teachers to the 
personal and professional benefits of researching their own 
classrooms, and to show how this can be feasible as well as 
useful, even for teachers in very difficult circumstances.