The purpose of the Action Research SIG is to encourage and actively assist education practitioners to develop their skills in applied research and professional inquiry in order to improve educational decision-making at all levels. In doing this, this SIG intends to:

• promote educational reform from within by assisting practitioners in all educational areas to focus their attention on improving their own practice by means of self-examination and focused inquiry;
• promote the worth and relevance of inquiry-based findings for decision-making by practitioners at all levels of teaching and administration in school-based, community-oriented, and higher education contexts;
• encourage practitioners from school, community, and higher education settings to collaborate in inquiry-oriented activities that improve the quality of education in their professional contexts;
• promote the use of qualitative as well as quantitative methods of data collection and data analysis (and all appropriate combinations of these methods) by educational practioneres to improve the state of educational practice in which they work; and
• promote the use of practitioners-initiated and inquiry-based findings in policy-making directed toward major social issues at local, regional, and national levels.

In support of the above-listed SIG purposes and intents, the Action Research SIG explicitly adopts a broad, inclusive definition of "action research" and does not limit its interests or the content of its annual programs to selected groups of educators, all recognized research methodologies, and all types of decisions in its efforts to promote educational reform and improve the quality of educational actions and decisions at all levels of education.