International School Teachers’ Views on the Role of Action Research within IB MYP and DP Environments: An Exploration of the Benefits and Constraints

Abstract

This study examines teachers’ perspectives on action research (AR) within an International Baccalaureate (IB) international school context. Participants, representing diverse cultural and disciplinary backgrounds across the Middle Years and Diploma Programmes, shared their experiences through semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using thematic analysis to explore teachers’ understandings of AR, its perceived benefits and constraints, and its role in advancing professional learning in international education. Findings indicate that AR supports inquiry into themes central to international schooling, including interculturalism, inclusion, mobility, and student wellbeing. Teachers valued AR’s practical and collaborative character, particularly its capacity to bridge theory and classroom practice. However, structural constraints, including time pressures, leadership transience, uneven research literacy, and limited institutional coordination, restricted sustained engagement. The analysis identifies three interrelated institutional priorities emerging from participants’ accounts: leadership coherence, ethical guidance, and long-term sustainability structures. These findings inform the development of a Leadership, Ethics, and Sustainability of Action Research Framework (LESARF), designed to support the embedding of practitioner inquiry within IB and other inquiry-oriented school contexts. Overall, teachers viewed AR as a reflective and solution-oriented practice; its sustained success depends upon distributed leadership, ethical clarity, methodological support, and systemic investment in sustained cultures of inquiry.