Richard A. Schmuck

Higher education is undergoing profound change at an unprecedented pace in today's academic marketplace. These authors have captured the essence expediting of the critical analysis processes needed to confront the challenges of academic administration, finance, student life, technology and other areas in the academic enterprise. Administrators and academicians nowadays must be able to make balanced decisions based on a methodology that is comprehensive, unambiguous, and credible. These authors have provided this methodology based on their collective experiences in perhaps the toughest sector of the marketplace - the HBCU sector. And while HBCU sectors will find this work especially rewarding in fact all institutions of higher learning can benefit from this desktop book. Given the recent media coverage about questionable decision making at institutions of higher learning in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Florida and many others around the world, this work and its research findings can serve as an alternative resource for meeting institutional challenges, approaching them with sequential structure, getting key stakeholders involved in the process, and formulating recommendations for future arbitration. The action research process, for making these tough decisions HEAR and NOW, provide a collaborative synergy to expeditiously move the process from a collegial examination of tacit as well as explicit knowledge. This process certainly supports the wide spread advocacy--in higher education and other business and governmental venues--for fostering organizational learning, leveraging of human capital, institutionalizing human empowerment, and growing learning communities of practice for success. Finally, this book is driven by intellectual prisms that often are overshadowed by political expediency, personal agenda, power positioning and other human inhibitors that cloud decision making centered from data authentication, internal consistency, and verifiable collaboration -- in brief, ""truth"".

This work is a scholarly monograph for practical use for higher education faculties. Specifically the monograph is aimed at faculties in historically Black and minority colleges and universities but its scope also includes the hundreds of state and private institutions that are trying to raise the level of research engagement among their core faculty. The lessons learned and the techniques observed worldwide by the authors are also included in this work and the study covers general application of action research for responsive proactive intervention in classroom instruction and improvement of higher education outcomes for students, graduate students and returning seekers of higher education as well as faculty needing mentoring and focus in their career development.There are few books that explore these areas of interest and this one is deigned to be intellectually solid as well as imminently practical and usable.

'This book is a modern catalyst for change in higher education. I have made it required reading for doctoral students, administrators, and faculty who must update their pedagogy to raise student learning' - Joseph Martin Stevenson, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Jackson State University Action research provides a process for educators to individually and collectively study their own situations, try new practices, evaluate those innovations, adjust, and try again. In this second, revised edition, Richard Schmuck demonstrates how educators at all levels can use action research to improve their professional practice and change the culture of their schools, districts, or communities. He shows how educators, by reflecting on their past, present, and future professional practice, can convert frustrations into solvable problems, and offers guidance about the potential pitfalls and challenges experienced when engaging in action research. This updated workbook covers both proactive and responsive models of action research and also includeso Easy-to-understand explanations of methods, steps, and phases o A chapter devoted to questionnaires, interviews, observations, and public documents o Guidelines for both solo and cooperative projects o "How-to" worksheets that guide readers through the process o Journal-writing activities at the end of every chapter o Case studies of real action research projectsPractical Action Research for Change is the essential tool for educators to tailor action research to their specific situation and improve professional practice.