Teacher research and British Columbia's curricular instructional experiment: implications for educational policy

Abstract

Teacher research serves as an innovative redirection of the tradition of framing the education of teachers around curriculum policies. It recognizes and encourages teachers as agents of knowing and constructors of knowledge. It is inquiry‐based, frequently collaborative, and invariably generative of teachers’ craft knowledge. British Columbia is currently in the middle of a most ambitious revision of its education system. This system‐wide attempt at innovation has provided an enabling context within which teachers in the province could engage in classroom‐based research as they attempt to build a learner‐focused curriculum. This article describes the teacher research efforts that have been taking place in the province, and attempts to derive important implications for educational policy. Teacher research permitted teachers to honour the educative agenda of schools, suggesting that more, rather than less, structures like teacher research groups be provided for in the implementation of complex educational i...