Here are some reflective notes under some question stems provided by Education Scotland in relation to my enquiry.
- What did you plan to do and why?
I initially planned to take stock over what could be done to improve staff health and wellbeing. The magnitude of this as a class teacher was much bigger than anticipated and lack of ability to gather data proved a stumbling block, but with support from those at the drop-in sessions I reframed my enquiry to be on a departmental basis. My new plan was therefore to evaluate what helped my department’s health and wellbeing during the pandemic and to measure the success of collaborative working during this period, as our method of teaching completely changed between August and October as well as during online learning.
I have found the lack of coherence in my own plans and movement in my research focus very frustrating throughout the year, which is why the journal article from Tina Cook called The Importance of Mess in Action Research really spoke to me like no other reading we have done this year. It has made me feel like even if I have no conclusion to draw after this, just having an increased awareness of the way in which we work as a department and how it effects our stress levels and wellbeing is perhaps worthwhile in itself.
