Examining what we mean by collaboration in collaborative action research: a cross-case analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to report on the nature of collaboration in a multi-year, large-scale collaborative action research project in which a teachers’ federation (in Ontario, Canada), university researchers and teachers partnered to investigate teacher-selected topics for inquiry. Over two years, 14 case studies were generated involving six university researchers and 61 teacher researchers. As teacher researchers collected their topic-specific data, university researchers worked in parallel on case studies at the 14 sites in an attempt to gain insights into the types and value of collaboration in collaborative action research. University researchers gathered 20–30 points of data for each case-study site (including teacher researcher final reports as well as journal entries, focus group interviews, field notes, video footage and questionnaires). Through comprehensive cross-case analysis, researchers were able to examine common traits as well as relationships between the nature of the teams, the nature of the projects and their relative success, to highlight conditions that led to robust collaborations. Through pattern matching, hypothesised events were compared with observations to test the claim that a triad of relationships between the team, the team lead and the researchers functioned as a positive collaborative force that propelled teacher team success in a generative ethos, even when faced with substantial challenges.