About Action Research
As a global research–practice partnership, the MLRC School Network serves schools committed to improving outcomes for multilingual learners. MLRC members have opportunities to engage in dialogue and collaborative research to explore common problems of practice in teaching multilingual learners. This provides the foundation for inquiry both within schools and across schools. When educators engage in and with educational research – and apply it to their own teaching context – they can positively impact their students. In the same way, participating in a RPP also benefits researchers by developing their capacity to engage with current educators and creating more impactful, relevant research.
Mincu (2014) reports correlational evidence suggesting that where research and data are used as part of high-quality initial teacher education and ongoing professional development, they make a positive difference in terms of teacher, school, and system performance.
Action research provides an opportunity to bridge the gap between research and practice. To expand the impact of individual research projects across the MLRC School Network, member schools can share insights across contexts – an important opportunity often not possible within the limitations of individual teachers’ action research.
MLRC Action Research Projects
In 2023-2024, school-based teams from around the globe engaged in research projects. For many participants, they began their action research journey through attending an in-person MLRC Research Symposium. After the conclusion of each MLRC Research Symposium, teams met regularly with each other and with the MLRC team for additional coaching and support of their action research projects. In individual meetings and monthly meet-ups, teams shared about their experiences and further develop their skills to engage in data collection and analysis. Following the Research Symposium, the MLRC provides ongoing support for school-based teams through the end of the school year in the following ways:
The goals of this process were:
- Engaging with existing research about teaching multilingual learners
- Developing capacity to conduct local action research
- Synchronous Zoom webinars focus on key topics to support team’s ongoing action research projects, such as addressing common barriers, data collection and data analysis.
- All webinars are recorded to allow for asynchronous engagement if teams are unable to attend the live sessions.
At the end of the school year, teams are invited to share their findings with the larger MLRC School Network at the Capstone. This can be a recorded video presentation, an infographic or a summary paper. The goal is for all teams to share what they learned and how they might refine or sustain this inquiry in the following school year.
Additionally, teams are encouraged to consider writing articles and/or presenting at regional conferences to share findings from their action research as well as lessons learned. Teams will be offered the option to co-write articles and/or co-present at conferences with the MLRC team.
2023-2024 Capstone Reports
In May of each year, teams reflect on and share their progress through a Capstone report. Engage with some of the 2023-2024 Capstone reports submitted by some of our teams below:
Good research takes time. While the action research project process is originally designed to be completed in May of each year, many schools have adjusted their timeline to engage more deeply in each stage of the action research process. Here are some of the research questions that teams are continuing to explore.
Sharing Out!
In addition to Capstone projects, teams are encouraged and supported to share about their action research through co-writing and co-presenting with the MLRC team. One step on this journey is for teams to write about their experience through a Featured Partner article.
Featured Partners
After completing their action research project, the International School of Beijing wrote a Featured Partner article to highlight some of their findings. Learn more about how they are using a research-informed approach to translanguaging within their dual language program!
Upcoming Shared Conference Presentations
Library Access
As a part of the MLRC School Network, we are excited to offer complimentary online access to the University of Wisconsin Libraries system. It will be active for approximately one year from submission. If you are interested in access to research articles and materials through the library, please fill out the linked form.
It will ask you for:
- Your name
- Organization: List your school or agency
- Area or program: Select other or school administrator if applicable
- Address: List a US-based address or you may use the MLRC address at
1025 West Johnson
Madison, WI 53705 - Your email address: Please use your school email address
If you have any questions or require assistance with this process, please email mlrc@wcer.wisc.edu. As this is a university-wide process, we appreciate your patience as they process your request.