Action Research as a Means of Stepping Out of the Teaching Comfort Zone

Teachers’ professional knowledge landscapes (Clandinin and Connelly 1996) are shaped by such factors as their own educational experiences and the contexts in which they teach, and in the case of English language teachers, these contexts may be incredibly diverse. As practitioners, teachers gain extensive practical knowledge through their teaching, but they may not always be given the time to do professional reading or attend conferences, let alone conduct research. Action research provides teachers with a means of gaining knowledge through reflective practice. It enables them to become researchers by exploring a classroom-based issue or problem in some depth. This exploration can challenge them to make changes and may lead to improvements in practice.