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Chapter 50 of the book "Educators as Writers: Publishing for Personal and Professional Development" is presented. The chapter discusses the process of action research, human subject protection and sharing research results. The entry notes that action research is a teacher-directed and -motivated kind of research that gathers data on issues like teaching strategy or classroom transition times. The section cites that respect for people, beneficence and justice are ethical principles that teachers should follow when conducting action research.

Chapter 12 of the book "Getting Beyond the Facts: Teaching Social Studies/Social Sciences in the Twenty-First Century," second edition, by Joe L. Kincheloe is presented. This chapter urges that social studies teachers as well as students must become researchers. According to the author, these teachers have a well-defined sense of emancipatory purpose and an inclination to understand the context in which their teaching takes place. It also looks at the history of action research.

The article presents information on action research. Action research is part of a broader movement in education associated with the concepts of reflective practice and the teacher as researcher. It involves a self-reflective, systematic and critical approach to enquiry by participants who are also members of the research context. The aim of action research is to identify problematic situations or issues the participants consider worthy of investigation, and to intervene in those situations in order to bring about critically informed changes in practice. Several essential features distinguish action research from other forms of educational research. First, it is small-scale, contextualised and local in character, identifying and investigating teaching-learning issues within a specific situation. Second, it involves evaluation and reflection aimed at bringing about continuing changes in practice. Third, it is participatory, providing for communities of participants to investigate collaboratively issues of concern within their social situation. Fourth, it differs from the intuitive thinking that may occur as a normal part of teaching, as changes in practice are based on systematic data collection and analysis. Finally, action research is underpinned by democratic principles; it invests ownership for changes in curriculum practice in those who conduct the research.

The article discusses the book "Education Policy and Realist Social Theory." The book is a clear and accessible introduction to the morphogenetic approach in the sociology of education, and organisation and management studies. The author, Robert Willmott establishes the theoretical framework that underpins historical and contemporary case-study research of child-centredness and new managerialism; argues that the interplay of structure, culture and agency can be theorised via the methodological device of analytical dualism; appraises the school effectiveness research; provides up-to-date case-study analysis of how teaching staffs in two primary schools mediate the contradiction between child-centred philosophy and practice and new managerialism; and discusses the implications of the findings for primary school practice and underscores the need for a critical realist approach to theorising about education policy and practice.