Action research as a method has gained ground in various fields, such as, agriculture, medicine and management since its introduction. In education, action research was said to be introduced by Lewin (1947) through its community service programmes. Action research in education then spread throughout the world with the works of action research gurus, such as, John Elliott, Stephen Kemmis, Jean McNiff, Bridget Someth, Christopher Day, Jack Whitehead, John McKernan, Herbert Altrichter, Richard Sagor, and others. Action research is also recognised as one of the reflective activities used in promoting reflection among practitioners towards developing the practitioners' or teachers' professionalism. Thus, it is not surprising that action research has been implemented in many educational programmes to promote continuous professional development among educators and teachers.

In Malaysia, action research was first introduced by Stephen Kemmis in December 1988 and since then, various action research projects and activities have been implemented to foster the culture of research among educators, spearheaded by the Educational Planning and Reseach Policy Division (EPRD), with the cooperation of State Education Departments, and Institute of Teacher Education Campuses (then known as Teacher Training Colleges). Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Malaya, Universiti Sains Malaysia, for instance, have also promoted action research in their respective post graduate programmes. Thus, throughout the years, many action research projects and reports were and are generated, national seminars and conferences were and are organized to enable the sharing of action research findings.

Nevertheless, it's about time that action research practitioners convene and have a discourse on issues related to current and future development in action research to enable understanding and transforming of practices, other than reflecting on the values and reasons for doing action research not only among practitioners in Malaysia but with their oversea counterparts. Intellectual discourse through conferences could provide opportunities and space to scholars, academicians and educators in obtaining and sharing current knowledge, skills and values related to action research other than providing opportunities for participants to exchange ideas with specially invited speakers, experts and practitioners of action research in the areas concerned. It is with hope that knowledge, skills and values obtained and shared during conferences will be used to further develop and produce knowledgable, creative and innovative practitioners who are not only capable of transforming their practices but also capable of engaging learners in learning.

In addition to that, through conferences, the sharing of findings on practices in different fields in education and across boundaries should be promoted. This would generate further understanding on, of and for action research other than transforming respective practices to face the challenges of 21st century, thus providing the platform to address major issues such as the ones related to democratization, internationalization of education and multi-culturalism in education. Thus, the organizing of "International Conference on Action Research in Education" (iCARE) 2014 befits these purposes and provides the avenue and venue for such discourse.

Therefore, it is not surprising that PROFES is collaborating with Institute of Teacher Education Batu Lintang Campus (Institut Pendidikan Guru Kampus Batu Lintang, Kuching, Sarawak/IPGK BL) for the second time to embrace the challenges in upgrading the level of professionalism of educators by co-organizing this "International Conference on Action Research in Education" (iCARE) 2014. This close cooperation and collaboration is a continuous effort in internationalizing education through action research in education towards fulfilling the needs of the Malaysia Educational Blueprint (2013-2025).