Abstract:
Action Research is a widespread practice of teacher inquiry implemented to develop teachers’
research and reflective skills. It is considered to be an opportunity to bridge research and
teaching practice. Teachers are supposed to identify some issues and solve them through
Action Research. The project of Action Research has been recently launched in Kazakhstan
education system since 2012. It was firstly introduced in Nazarbayev Intellectual schools in
2012, and then it has been disseminated to the mainstream schools of Kazakhstan. A big
number of teachers were involved in the process its implementation. That is why, it is essential
to analyze teachers’ understanding and views on Action Research. The purpose of the study
was to explore secondary school teachers’ attitudes towards the project of Action Research
and its effect on their teaching practice. The qualitative design was applied in this study to
receive a detailed understanding of the issue. The purposeful sampling method was used to
choose five teachers of the mainstream school of Taraz city. The maximum variation was
selected to get different perspectives on the research questions. The following criteria were
used to choose the participants: subjects, years of conducting Action Research and research
topic. The findings of the study presented an overview of teachers’ attitudes taking into
account professional and emotional aspects as well as the obstacles they met. In addition, the
results highlighted the areas of teaching practice that were under the influence of Action
Research. The study also suggested some recommendations for policy makers and school
administrators on how to contribute to the development of Action Research through
understanding teachers’ opinion.