SOLES Action Research Work
Graduate Students from the University of San Diego visiting students at Daito Bunka University in Japan during the action research symposium hosted by the Japanese Association of Action Research
As interest in action research has grown within the School of Leadership & Education Sciences (SOLES), the types of action research conducted by faculty and students, the cross-program collaborations, and the nature of the action research professional development work conducted in support of the increased SOLES’ involvement all have changed.
One very visible change has been the evolution of the annual action research conference. The event was established by the Center for Student Support Systems in 2004 as the Action Research Symposium, with an exclusive focus on action research in school counseling. Attendance was entirely locally based. By 2009 the former Symposium had become the Annual SOLES Action Research Conference, with participation by students and faculty from three SOLES programs and with growing attendance and interest from around the country and the world. Keynote speakers for the expanded conference have included leading international figures in action research, including Bill Torbert, Susan Noffke, and Jack Whitehead.
The Center for Student Support Systems continues to provide the principal organizing and coordination for the annual action research conference. In the fall of 2009, the Center also established an on-line Action Research e-Laboratory. The virtual laboratory was created to share action research resources across programs and specializations and to encourage cross-disciplinary designs for action research projects. Also In 2009-2010, a team of graduate students working with Professor Rowell, faculty from the Department of Learning and Teaching and the SOLES web developer redesigned the on-line infrastructure for SOLES action research information and resources. Over the spring and summer of 2010 the action research resources of CS3 were migrated from the center’s web site to a new action research section included under SOLES’ Programs on the web.
We hope you find our growing on-line resources useful. For questions or feedback regarding the action research pages on the SOLES’ web site, please feel free to contact Professor Rowell at lrowell@sandiego.edu.
