Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to assess the practices of action research and its
contribution for schools improvement in selected secondary schools of Borena Zone.
Hence, descriptive survey method with mixed approach was employed in order to collect
relevant data from the respondents. For this study, from 29 secondary schools 7 sample
secondary schools were selected by using stratified random sampling technique. The
subjects of the study were 102 teachers, 35 leaders, 7 principals and 7 Woreda
Education Curriculum officers by using stratified random sampling and available
sampling technique respectively. Both primary and secondary source of data were
gathered from the respondents through questionnaire, interview and documents. The
questionnaires were pilot tested and administered to 28 teachers. About 97% of the
questionnaires were properly filled and returned. In addition to this, interview was
conducted and document was observed to collect the necessary information. Descriptive
statistics such as frequency, percentage and mean score, standard deviation, grand
mean, were used to analyze quantitative data, whereas, qualitative data was analyzed
in verbal description in line with research objectives simultaneously with quantitative
data. Furthermore, inferential statistics (t- test) was used to compare statistical
significance difference among the teachers and leaders using the responses of two
groups in their respective schools. The major findings of the study were: teachers’
involvement in conducting action research and practice of action research, support
provided from the school leaders and contribution of action research for enhancing
school improvement, were below the required levels. However, the extent to which
teachers were professionalized in conducting action research was found to be positive.
From these findings it can be conclude that even though, teachers had positive basic
knowledge and skills of research to be engaged in conducting action research, their
practical involvement in conducting action research was affected by other factors like
insufficient research facilities, lack of support from their leaders and their personal
factors like lack of commitment, interest, self-confidence and experience in conducting
action research. Finally, commitment in fulfilling and supplying resources, providing
professional support, continuous training and workshop in order to build the capacity
of teachers in research competence, creating commitment to motivate teachers through
recognition, reward and incentives were recommended.
