Exploring the Impact of Workshops and a Mini-Project in Student Teachers Becoming Qualitative Researchers

Abstract

Drawing on Vygotsky's "space framework" (Harré, 1984; Mostofo & Zambo, 2015), this article reports the findings of our action research project that examined student teachers' beliefs and behavior changes while completing a qualitative research project. Our research question was, "to what extent do student teachers change their beliefs and behaviors about qualitative research (QR) after participating in a two-workshop series of qualitative designs in language classrooms and doing a mini-project?" The participants of this study were eight student teachers at an Indonesian university, and the research data was collected through questionnaires and interviews. The study's findings show that student teachers changed their beliefs and practices about QR because they were shown how to do QR by an experienced professional qualitative researcher and conducted a mini-project. In addition, the workshops and the mini-project inspired and encouraged them to become qualitative researchers in TESOL and increased their research literacy such as how to find a research area and setting research goals.