The Teacher Research Movement: A Decade Later

Abstract

In this article, we discuss the latest renewal of interest in the U.S. in teacher research and other forms of practitioner inquiry, a movement that is now a little more than a decade old. We argue that part of what makes the current wave of interest a movement and not just the latest educational fad is that teacher research stems from several different, but in some ways compatible, intellectual traditions and educational projects. We identify five major trends that characterize the current U.S. movement: (a) the prominence of teacher research in teacher education, professional development, and school reform; (b) the development of conceptual frameworks and theories of teacher research; (c) the dissemination of teacher research beyond the local level; (d) the emergence of critique of teacher research and the teacher research movement; and (e) the transformative potential of teacher research on some aspects of university culture. Based on our own teacher research experiences and understandings of teacher research, we conclude with thoughts about the future of the movement in the face of the standards movement and other current reforms that create an educational climate quite different from that of a decade ago.