My Role as Worker Researcher in My Research Process

Action research approach is seen as an ideal approach for improving

organizational and professional practice through involvement. As the researcher

is involved in the change, the research process becomes collaborative by its

nature. Therefore, I as an insider, opened up a problem for the improvement of

my colleagues and my organization (Lomax, 1996; Gill and Johnson, 1997;

Mills, 2003).

The art of managing this started with an organizational learning system in order

to accomplish workplace change. I constructed my professional knowledge and

organizational knowledge through action research (Altrichter et al., 1993), using

my implicit understanding of my work setting and relating this understanding to

theoretical. This mode of work enhances professional knowledge and reflects the

synergy of practice and theory within the particular arena (Allwright, 2005).

“Educational practice” involves a transaction between a teacher and learner to

make educational sense and construct knowledge with the purpose of getting

people to learn what is thought by the educator and the educational system to be

of value. It is important therefore to know how actors interpret educational

practice within their context (Saito et al., 2008). In this respect, the development

and maintenance of knowledge through change oriented actions require

In respect to the above arguments, it is crucial to stress the context of

construction of a theory through the action research process. Considering the

roles of worker as researcher in educational practice is therefore essential, as is

respect for educational practitioners as worker researchers and a clear

understanding of the need to conduct action research in order to improve practice

(Mills, 2003).

As my research aims to shed fresh light on an issue or problem, there is also an

intensified need to consider my own role and position in providing contributions

to my target audiences through the outcomes of my research. For shedding fresh

light on the issues or collecting new information, I concentrated on the stages

below:

• Recognition and definition of the problem

• Observations, collection and classification of data considered relevant

to the problem

• Formulation of a tentative hypothesis concerning these observations

on the phenomena

• Verification of hypothesis

• Formulation of conclusion (Verma and Mallick, 1999)

While concentrating on these stages, I become sensitive at each research step to

ethical issues in order to get valid and reliable research outcomes. I mainly view

social phenomena holistically by using complex reasoning and sensitive personal

reflection in order to shape my research in terms of balancing involvement in the

research (Marshall and Rossman, 1999).

With the different responsibilities of being a worker researcher in the university

Distance Education Institute and Department of Educational Sciences, I had the

justification of being a motivated insider in order to make changes within my

research context and thereby develop institutional practice. The environment of

organizational change gave me responsibility for directing experiential learning

and gave me a real sense of being a worker researcher.

As one of the researchers with in-depth knowledge and experience within the

discipline of distance education at EMU, my project supported the improvement

of the Distance Education Institute as required for the quality improvement of the

university in relation to EUA Standards.

The work based project was managed with the collaboration of the Director of

the Distance Education Institute. In the project, online tutors and members of

Distance Education Institute gained knowledge and practical experiences about

the pedagogical aspects of online learning and teaching for their professional

development and organizational culture was constructed through this work for

the Distance Education Institute. In other words, the project used reflective

practice to enhance professional knowledge through thought and action within

educational practice (Schön, 1991; Halton, 2004).

Through these efforts, the concepts of collegiality and collaboration were

enhanced among online tutors, my work based project becoming a handbook

providing insights on communication practices in the institute and giving details

on how to teach online courses in terms of online pedagogy. This supported

distance education practices at the university in terms of quality improvement as

well as being beneficial to other institutions.

Armsby (2000) provided insights to me about the potential advantages and

carrying out action research, the researcher can know more about the problem to

be investigated and use the insider position to solve problems based on strategic

actions.

In addition, a researcher can be allocated resources from the organization that an

outsider researcher might face difficulty in accessing. Furthermore, a researcher

has access to stakeholders who constitute the critical bridge between researcher

and participants. Knowing organizational culture also enabled immediate

decisions and actions during the research process.

Thus, being a worker researcher had a positive effect on professional growth and

development of expertise. This influenced the work context and increased the

quality and standards of practices in relation to communication practices within

distance education. The potential advantages of being a worker researcher were

thus:

• Internalizing the organizational culture and climate of Distance

Education Institute implicitly

• Enhancing collegiality and collaboration between university staff for

professional development

• Improving understanding in working practice

• Gaining in-depth knowledge in both educational research and my

research interest within the practice

However, there are also potential disadvantages of being a worker as researcher:

being too close to the problem, which affects the need to be objective and

unbiased; and overestimating expectations and values. I managed these

disadvantages as listed below by being strategic in my dual roles and actions, and

• Being too close to the issue

• Being influenced by my own expectations to reach the outcome of

research

• Having different positions and responsibilities; duality of roles may

cause huge workloads

• As the university is habituated to a centralized system, there may be a

resistance to change among tutors to new approaches.