When I Think of Research

     When I think of research, I envision professionals using valid, reliable, and ethical methods of answering questions in an effort to improve their practice and the lives of those they serve. I have been skeptical of university driven research because of my experiences with researchers who have not been early childhood professionals, and their eagerness to please funders over finding and reporting truthful answers. During this course, however, I have discovered that practitioners can be researchers, and I have come to believe that action research is very useful to early childhood professionals who want to better serve the children and families in their care. There is more on action research at the website listed below. I have also come to a sensitivity for the children's competence to give assent as participants, separate from the primary consent of their parents, an element of research I had not previously considered.
      Planning and designing the research is a common conversational activity with my colleagues and family in the course of discussing the world's problems and how to go about solving them. Putting the talk on paper seems to be the next logical step to take in this interesting and important pastime, and so writing and refining a research topic question, hypothesis and research design, with step-by-step instructions, made the process do-able for even a student. The most challenging part of this course for me was plowing through much language that was not conversational, using vocabulary and style perhaps common to academics, but certainly not in the daily interactions of most early childhood professionals. For these, I skipped to the Conclusion, as directed by Dr. Lepuschitz in the article, "A Practical Guide to Reading Research Articles" (Lepuschitz, 2011), and feel relieved to have such direction from a respected instructor.
Any Early Childhood Professional should be, and can be reading current research, (keeping Dr. Lepuschitz's guide handy), and even considering ways to act upon the questions that need answers in their professional environment with research. Even if the research is never published, the very act of proceeding results in professional growth. Described as a journey in The Research Journey: A Lonely Planet Approach, the research journey changed the "traveller" not just in what was learned, but also in what she became as a result (Mackenzie & Ling. 2009).

Thank you, fellow travellers, for your professional company along the path of Building Research Competencies.


References
Ferrance, E. (2000). Action Research. Retrieved from www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/themes_ed/act_research.pdf

Lepuschitz, J.K. (2011). A practical guide to reading research articles.  Laureate Education Inc., Baltimore, MD.

Mackenzie, N. M., & Ling, L. M. (2009). The research journey: A Lonely Planet approach. Issues in Educational Research, 19(1), 48–60 Retrieved from the Walden Library using Education Research Complete database