This article is centred on a preliminary phase of action research which the literature has not given much attention to. The initial stages are usually complex and the ideas on how to proceed are often unclear. Therefore, learning how different authors have dealt with them can serve as guidelines when initiating new research, which is why I have decided to dedicate the contents of this article to explaining how we developed the initial phase. Firstly, I begin mentioning my expectations in relation to the research, and I point out some of the problems I thought would appear at the beginning of the collaborative study. Later, I make reference to the criteria employed when choosing the school where the research was carried out and I describe the way we proceeded to negotiate the proposal and inform the school community of it. When describing the negotiation process, I give special importance to those matters which we dedicated more attention to, such as the discussion of the different issues, the selection of one and the initial planning directed towards its understanding and the introduction of orientative measures for its improvement. The description concludes with a reference to the elaboration, presentation and circulation of the written proposal, all of which closed the negotiation corresponding to this phase. Finally, I make an evaluation of the process and formulate a series of questions that can facilitate the development of the initial phase and subsequent studies. Nevertheless, the conditions that surround each piece of research are different and, therefore, the way it is carried out will depend, to a great extent, on those conditions. (Contains 1 table and 15 notes.)