Autonomy

In Chapter One of Nancy Fichtman Dana’s book, Leading With Passion and Knowledge, she discusses the value of allowing educators to develop and implement an action research project. She discusses how this process engages educators by giving them the autonomy to pursue their own interests and ideas. I find this idea particularly interesting, because I am also in the process of reading Daniel Pink’s book, Drive, which was recommended to me by an instructional leader in my district when I interviewed her for my Lamar Fundamentals of Leadership course. Pink also describes that people will perform better when they have autonomy. I myself have felt the effects of this idea as I have developed and implemented my action research plan. I feel engaged, interested, and motivated when I am working on this project that I designed for myself. I am beginning to develop another wondering based on my own increased motivation – how can we use the action research process to engage our teachers and/or students?