A handbook for Exploratory Action Research

Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the following 
people, at different times, in making this Handbook a reality: 
Katherine Hutter, Deborah Sepulveda and Isabel González 
(British Council Chile); Andrew Chadwick and Tom Connelly 
(both, formerly British Council Chile); John Knagg (British 
Council, UK); personnel of the English Opens Doors 
programme, Ministry of Education, Chile; mentors and 
mentees in the Chilean Champion Teachers programme past 
and present, including Claudia Bustos, Lorena Muñoz, Leyla 
Nuñez, Daniela Gajardo, Camila Villalobos, Javier Avalos, 
Mauro Saéz, Teresa Ríos, Esteban López and Andrea Robles. 
We also thank Teresa Perčić, Carolina Cid, Gemma 
Maldonado and Jeannie Fernández for allowing us to use 
their stories / materials. Finally, a special word of thanks to 
Jason Anderson for his work as content editor for the book 
and, beyond that, for his concrete, creative suggestions for 
content in several places. 
1 
Edited by Paula Rebolledo, Richard Smith and Deborah Bullock (2016). London: British Council. Online: 
http://bit.ly/champion-teachers

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6 
| Introduction
You may like to try out this self-diagnosis exercise before we begin. It gives an overview
of the different kinds of skill and ability (‘competency’) we hope you will have developed
by the end of the book. The exercise is repeated again at the end of the book to help you
see what you’ve learned. 
Start here!
Explanation 
The main purpose of the form on the next page is to help 
you identify existing strengths, and identify areas where you 
would particularly value professional development and 
support. The diagnostic tool is based around fifteen 
‘Exploratory Action Research Competencies’.
 
Each competency has five levels and you need to decide
for each competency which level you are currently working 
at. It is expected that you will have a range of competencies 
at different levels, but at the start you may not have many
(or any) above Level 0.