Engaging in action research: a personal and professional journey towards an inquiry into teacher morale in a senior secondary college

Abstract

This article, written as a reflexive story, describes my journey as a practitioner researcher investigating the implementation of a study‐group format in place of a formal meeting arrangement for the teaching team I lead. The inquiry has been initiated to explore the intervention as a way to promote teacher morale. The research site is a large senior secondary college in the state of Victoria, Australia. The article also considers action research as a potential source of teacher learning. Encouraging preliminary results are beginning to emerge that support influential joint action is taking place with a positive impact on teacher morale. A model for morale and motivation that I formed by integrating concepts from the literature has been instrumental to the development of the study.

Keywords:

• teacher morale
• motivation
• secondary college
• professional development