 Hi, my name is Maureen Glenn. I've been a primary teacher all my life and a school principal too. I've been involved in action research for many years now. I am also one of the co-conveners of the Network for Educational Action Research in Ireland, Niri. In 1995, Donald Sean wrote about how practitioner research is in conflict with the prevailing epistemology of the research university. And to be honest, little has changed really since 1995. The research practice gap is still there and I think it's a two-fold problem. Firstly, reading up about research in education is not a high priority for some teachers and consequently it has little influence on practice. Secondly, and at the same time, we have a situation where the research undertaken by teachers in their classrooms, in their practice, is largely ignored by policy makers according to Pitchhouse et al. This is a strange dilemma when you think about it because nobody knows as much about what goes on in your practice and in your classroom as you. Magnificent whitehead argue that teachers are frequently seen as expert practitioners and not as expert knowers and they offer the solution in the form of self-study action research and living theory methodologies and they suggest that teachers need to develop a confidence in themselves as generators of theory and other people will then develop confidence in their own capacity. So I see action research as a form of a bridge between theory and research. Undertaking action research helps to give teachers a focus for professional reading as engaging in action research assumes that you will do some reading about your area of interest. Action research also assumes that you, the practitioner, can and should generate theory from your learning in the course of the research. Very often this research is accredited and legitimated by the university. So there are three main stages in doing an action research project. So we'll begin with the preparation and the preparation is one of the most important stages of the research. So you begin by pausing, reflecting, questioning, talking to critical friends, thinking and reading. You can also establish a research question at this stage and it might be something along the lines of how can I improve my practice or how can I celebrate a specific aspect of my practice? How can I learn more about something and be sure to get all necessary permissions and gain ethical approval? So moving on then to the second stage which I guess is the project stage. So to begin this practical stage of your project, gather all your data and reflect on your work. Evaluate your action and review how you see your values in your practice. Do this on an everyday basis. See if there are indications that you're improving your practice or not and record everything. The third stage of the research project is about generating theory. So you make an overall claim to your learning. If you have improved your practice by living in the direction of your values then present evidence to show this. If you feel you have not improved your practice then think about what you've learned and how your thinking has changed. As you reach the end of your research you will write up a report on the process and on what you've learned. Very often you will be left with a new set of questions and you can now begin a whole new cycle of your action research. Donald Sean claimed that these new questions were an important part of the reflective process. It's important also to tell the story of your learning and to show the significance of your work and to move on to a new cycle again if you like to.