The ‘Teacher as Researcher’ Premise

1994

A new form of knowledge proposed for a teacher education curriculum is dialogical and grounded in an educational researcher's experience of existing as a living contradiction within the politics of truth of a university. It includes a systematic form of action-reflection cycle and depends for its generalizability on teach6r researchers producing descriptions and explanations of their own educational development (their living educational theories) as they explore questions of the improvement of the quality of student learning. These educational theories are considered in Part One. Part Two describes an action research and educational theory case study based on the professional educational knowledge of competent teachers. It is argued that a teacher education curriculum for novice teachers should be related to the educational theories of competent teachers. This is shown in action in the educational theory of a university tutor in an educative relationship with a novice teacher as she forms an educational inquiry, defines her values, and is encouraged to gather evidence on the quality of her pupils' learning. Part Three draws the implications of a living educational theory for a teacher education curriculum and relates it to a practical science "model" and a common-sense "model" of teacher education. (Contains 36 references.) (Author/SLD)

The Teacher as Researcher: Case studies in educational research, 2014

What does it mean to be a ‘teacher researcher’? This book explores this question by showcasing examples of what teachers are doing when they act as a teacher researcher. While classroom teachers have always collected information and read to improve their teaching knowledge the concept of ‘teacher as researcher’, in the traditional researcher sense, is a relatively new concept in schools and classrooms. This book showcases how teachers from across the globe are contributing to the field of educational knowledge by acting as a ‘teacher researcher’. The central premise of this book is that when teachers act as a teacher researcher they engage in a powerful professional development strategy: one that increases their individual and collective teaching capacities, which in turn, engages them in school reforms and innovations which enable teachers to deal with short and long term educational challenges.

Harvard Educational Review, 1992

In this article, Susan Lytle and Marilyn Cochran-Smith, two university-based teacher educators, argue for a different theory of knowledge for teaching-one that is drawn from the systematic inquiry of teachers themselves. In contrast to a knowledge base for teaching that privileges only the knowledge of the university researcher, the authors propose a knowledge base that includes the emic perspective of the teacher researcher, whose questions and processes are embedded in classroom practice. In their analysis, the authors draw on a wide range of texts written by teachers, including journals, essays, oral inquiries, and classroom studies. Lytle and Cochran-Smith conclude that teacher research, which historically has been marginalized in the field, challenges the assumption that knowledge for teaching is generated by outsiders only; they argue, rather, that school-based teacher researchers are themselves knowers and a primary source of generating knowledge about teaching and learning for themselves and others. Over the past several decades, there have been a variety of efforts to codify a knowledge base for teaching. Implicit in these efforts is a theory that privileges one source of knowledge, that of university researchers, over others. In this article, we argue that educators need to develop a different theory of knowledge for teaching, a different epistemology that regards inquiry by teachers them selves as a distinctive and important way of knowing about teaching. From this perspective, fundamental questions about knowing, knowers, and what can be known have different answers. Teachers are among those who have the authority to know-that is, to construct "capital K" knowledge about teaching, learning, This article appears with the permission of Teachers College Press. It is an adaptation of Chapter

wiki.canterbury.ac.nz

Societal changes in the "knowledge society" present challenges for teacher educators charged with the preparation of teachers who will shape the learning experiences of young people in schools. A major challenge is to find ways in which these changing needs and conceptual shifts can be explored and understood by education practitioners. This paper introduces a work in progress-a Teacher Research Learning Initiative (TLRI) research project funded by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER)-that is attempting to do this through a collaborative action research project in the context of the new New Zealand Curriculum and encompassing a range of curriculum contexts. Framed as a collective case study with multiple (nine) contributing cases, the project involves participating teacher educators in action research relating to their work in initial and continuing teacher education. The action research construction of the project affords opportunities and presents challenges in relation to knowledge re-conceptualisation and the engagement of teacher educators in initial and continuing education in teacher research.

Journal of Language and Education, 2020

Educational research has generally attracted negative criticism for its generalisability, contextual independence, and inadequacy in addressing teachers' practical problems in their unique educational settings. Moreover, as classrooms are always complicated environments, teachers are therefore encouraged to become active researchers of their own classrooms in order to maximize their instructional performance and provide optimal learning opportunities for their students within their particular context. To promote teachers' self-inquiry into their own practices, this paper will first define what teacher research is, followed by arguments for its need and significance in the teaching profession. Suggestions to help teachers become engaged in classroom inquiry are provided after commonly reported difficulties are reviewed. This paper is expected to provide considerable insights for classroom teachers as well as school administrators in their search for practical, concrete, and contextually-rich knowledge.

This paper explores ways to bridge the separation that currently exists between the worlds of teacher research and academic research. Currently, many teachers feel that educational research conducted by those in the academy is largely irrelevant to their lives in schools. On the other hand, many academics dismiss the knowledge produced through teacher research as trivial and inconsequential to their work. In this paper, it is argued that our vision of educational research should include both teacher produced knowledge and knowledge produced by those in the academy, and take the position that the processes of teacher development, school reform, and teacher education can greatly benefit from occasions when academic and teacher knowledge cross the divide that currently separates teacher knowledge from academics and academic knowledge from teachers. Two specific examples are discussed that illustrate instances where academic knowledge and teacher knowledge have improved teaching, together with the assumptions regarding voice, power, ownership and status which make them successful cases. One case deals with the teaching of mathematics in the elementary school and the other is concerned with the teaching of language minority students. Also discussed are several ways in which knowledge produced by teachers and others who work in schools can potentially benefit academic research and teacher education programs in colleges and universities.

Educational Action Research, 1993

This article sketches the development of the idea that educational research should be integrated with the work of teachers in schools, in the form of the teacher-as-researcher. The arguments advanced in support of this proposal are examined. These consist in part of criticisms of conventional educational research: on the grounds that it is less likely to be educationally relevant and valid than teacher research, and that it is undemocratic and exploitative of teachers. An equally important part of the case for teacher research, of course, is criticisms of 'traditional' teaching, both for the nature of the classroom learning it encourages and for its 'unreflective' character. The conclusion drawn from assessment of these arguments is that, while they have some force, they are not conclusive; and they do not add up to a convincing case for the superiority of teaching-as-research.

2017

Countries across the world are reforming their systems of teacher education. Although this often takes different forms, one common theme across countries appears to be an increased focus on enquiry, evidence based teaching and teacher research (Kennedy, 2015), and Scotland is no exception. In 2011, the report ‘Teaching Scotland’s Future’ (TSF; Donaldson, 2011) was published. This policy proposed a radical redesign of teacher education provision in Scotland, at the centre of which was the ambition for teachers to become “reflective, accomplished and enquiring professionals” (Donaldson, 2011, p. 14). Central to this vision was the claim that teachers should be ‘agents of change’ and this increasing focus on ‘teacher agency’ also appears in recent curriculum policy in Scotland and internationally (Biesta, Priestley and Robinson, 2015; Priestley, 2011). Over the last five years, the vision of the teacher promoted by TSF has come to be associated with the idea of teachers becoming more a...

CEPS Journal, 2020

Educational Researcher, 1990