בחינת התפתחותה של מובילת תהליך חינוכי: מעגלי מחקר ועשייה

The article describes an action research that served as a pedagogical tool for the analysis and understanding of an educational process – an academy-field partnership – with the dual purpose of examining the contribution of action research to partnership, and to my professional development as an educational leader. A qualitative paradigm was used, describing a reflective perspective based on content analysis of a reflective dairy, transcripts of conversations with participants, observations, and an interview. Examination of my subjective-experiential reality as an educational leader was based on implicit aspects (doubts, feelings, discretion, and insights), and explicit aspects (the participants’ reactions, and implementation of decisions). In the first year of the partnership, I was guided by a traditional, goal-oriented leadership model, seeing problems as obstacles. My development as a leader stemmed from a grounded theory anchored in action research, and emphasized the importance of an autobiographical narrative in building my professional identity as a leader and researcher. The development, which affected participants and the system alike, was based on constructivist learning, and on cognitive and affective aspects, which characterize cooperative leadership.