Students as Action Research Partners: A New Zealand Example

Abstract

Authors examine how one teacher in New Zealand engaged in collaborative action research with her students.Student voice has long been emphasized as a key component of developmentally responsive middle level education (Beane, 1993; Brodhagen, 2001; National Middle School Association, 2003; Powell & Faircloth, 1997; Toepfer, 1997). For decades, researchers and educators alike have urged consideration of students' perspectives in the design of curriculum improve learning opportunities (Bishop & Pflaum, 2005). Similarly, students' self-assessment of their learning often yields powerful insights into their emerging knowledge and skills (Heritage, 2009). When teachers truly listen young adolescents, they not only learn important lessons, they also create opportunities for students improve their sense of personal efficacy (Stevenson, 2001).Fine examples of such classrooms certainly exist (e.g., Kuntz, 2005; Brinegar & Bishop, 2011); however, they remain the exception. Increasing emphasis on school accountability in the United States often works in opposition more student-centered pedagogies. In contrast actively soliciting students' input, many states and districts have mandated a top-down curriculum that encourages the use of textbooks that purport prepare students for tests tied increasingly school funding, teachers' salaries, and principals' jobs.The purpose of this article is present a New Zealand example of a middle years teacher who, in divergence from this current U.S. (and increasingly New Zealand) focus on school accountability, invited her students into the conversation about teaching and learning improve her and cocreate responsive pedagogy. Betty (a pseudonym) was in her sixth year of teaching and saw the research as an opportunity learn from her students more about effective teaching for young adolescents. She intended reflect on this knowledge and integrate insights into her teaching practice.The article begins by outlining what is meant by collaborative action research in the context of this study and how participating teachers and students used this methodology explore and cocreate responsive pedagogy. In the interest of space, only one teacher's experience is described as an example of what can happen when students and teachers work together consider the complex endeavor known as public education. Betty's class used collaborative action research processes revitalize reflecting on learning in their classroom. The article describes the process they went through and the findings of this classroom's action research cycle. We conclude by exploring the possibilities and implications of collaborative action research for enacting student voice in classrooms and for teacher development and effectiveness.Action researchAction research, a cyclical process of problem solving through data collection, analysis, action, and evaluation, is not uncommon in educational research and is often conducted in school settings (Caskey, 2005). Action research is preferred as a key practitioner research and professional development approach because it involves teachers working to understand and improve their own practice (Collins, 2004, p. 348). Examples that engage students in that research, however, continue be all too rare, although involving students as researchers is a key strand of student voice research (Atweh & Bland, 2004; Yonezawa & Jones, 2009). Inviting students as full partners in the research cycle has the potential transform their tacit knowledge of good teaching and of themselves as learners into valuable, explicit knowledge for teachers. Through this practice, both student and teacher are positioned as learners in relationship with each other (Collins, 2004). In such classrooms, students and teacher together make ongoing decisions about focus, process, and strategy and draw on one another's experience and expertise. …