Teacher Research Movement Research Articles

Taking a Stance: Teacher Researchers’ Historical and Political Positioning

With teacher walkouts and other forms of protest on the rise, EdD programs are beginning to frame practitioner-scholars’ work as activism. The purpose of this article is to explore and complicate that trend by interpreting data from oral history interviews with three long-term teacher researchers, alongside shifting historical scholarship on civil rights activism. Each participant cites civil rights activism as an inspiration and positions the rise of neoliberal education reform as a backlash to the 1960s that threatens the so-called teacher research movement. However, historians challenge the dominant narrative of the 1960s, highlighting behind-the-scenes conservative activism that did not garner the same media attention as liberal marches and boycotts. Consequently, while the participants’ stories offer abundant insight for practitioner-scholars as well as for the teacher educators who guide them, this article ultimately argues EdD activists should take a schoolhouse-to-statehouse approach.

Advocating Mathematics Teacher Research Prowess for Improved Professionalism

While serving in the field of practice, teachers have continued to hold to the view that research is an activity carried out by professional researchers based outside the basic schools. This is because traditionally, class teachers have never been expected to comment on the theory and practice of their work. However, recent push by the Teacher Research movement across the globe has emphasized teacher research as a process in which educators note problems in the context of their own schools and classrooms and propose investigative methods appropriate to address the problems. On this premise, this review first considers the ramification of mathematics teacher research in improving professionalism in the teaching and learning of mathematics. Secondly, teacher professionalism in mathematics education was given a detailed coverage. Thirdly, the task of mathematics teachers as researchers was considered. The role of higher education in nurturing fruitful collaborations with basic schools was discussed along with the implications of mathematics teacher research for classroom practice in Nigeria.

Understanding Inquiry as Stance: Illustration and Analysis of One Teacher Researcher’s Work

The development of "inquiry as stance" is a foundational component of the teacher research movement. Yet, it is difficult to exemplify this construct to gain insights into its meaning and what it might look like in practice. The purpose of this article is to initiate discussion about the construct of stance through the provision and analysis of an eight-minute video clip depicting one teacher researcher’s work. Three components of stance are discussed in relationship to the video example: (1) Data Collection as a Part of Teaching, (2) Roles of Inquirer and Teacher Blend Seamlessly With One Another, and (3) Commitment to the Creation of More Equitable Classrooms.

Dialogues with Marilyn Cochran-Smith

For more than 30 years, Dr. Marilyn Cochran-Smith has developed and directed research and contributed to publications about education and practitioner research, especially about teachers’ research and learning in inquiry communities. Her primary topics are inquiry communities, teacher research, teacher education for social justice, and practitioner research. In this interview, we sought information about the trajectory of Dr. Cochran-Smith and Susan Lytle's research about the teacher research movement and teacher research process, particularly learning and professional development in inquiry communities. We were also interested in her opinions about the Obama administration's education policies, especially teacher education research in the United States. This article is the full text of the interview the authors conducted with Dr. Cochran-Smith in December 2012 at Boston College.

CAN BE THE PRESERVICE SCIENCE TEACHER A RESEARCHER?

In this theoretical research an impersonal style should be used the status of teacher research in science education, examine the advantages of science teacher research, and consider possibilities for the role of science teacher research. In literature teacher research or teacher action research was mentioned only briefly as a part of qualitative research or science teacher education. This lack of attention to science teacher research might reflect the relatively late entry of science teachers into the teacher research movement. Teacher research is an effective model for teacher learning and development. Teacher research can make valuable contributions to the knowledge base for science teaching. Teacher researchers step outside their own assumptions and preconceptions and maintain a healthy skepticism about their observations of themselves and their students. One semester action research project was implemented in observing teaching practice course at the preservice science teachers training at Faculty of Science Palacky University in Olomouc. Students during this semester observed science lessons in upper secondary schools. They analyzed pedagogical events that happened in the class. They also developed a research-base rational paper describing how they will teach science. During this semester students examined one aspect of this rationale in an action research project carried out in collaboration with the host teacher. Science teacher research can contribute to the development of prospective science teachers and the development of a knowledge base for science teaching and learning. This is a particularly interesting moment in time to examine the contributions and potentials of science teacher research. Key words: science education, preservice science teacher training, science teacher research, development of preservice science teachers, action research, preservice science teacher as a research.

Reforming educational reform: teachers' union leading teacher research in Chile

The teacher research movement in Chile has, historically, been an expression of the profession's concerns with the ways in which schooling reproduces and produces the social order in the broader society. The work currently done by members of the union's Pedagogical Movement is described, showing the connections between the scope of problems researched and the conditions of teachers' work. Often, the problems addressed are complex enough to require action by diverse stakeholders working collaboratively; including alliances between the Union and other national and international organizations.

Searching for Dialogue in Dance Education: A Teacher's Story

In this article, based on my dissertation, “A Dream Journey to the Unknown: Searching for Dialogue in Dance Education” (2003), I will describe several qualities, or themes, related to dialogue. These ideas may facilitate dialogue in dance education and bear significance for reflecting the nature of dialogical education more generally. In addition, my intent is to uncover the personal nature of my search for dialogue. Before describing the themes, I briefly outline the research process.The process began in 1997 when I was invited to take part in an art education project that was situated in an elementary school in Helsinki, Finland. I was aware that I was about to turn back to something that I thought I had already left behind. I had recently completed another study concerning my own dance teaching practice (1996). I had joined the so-called teacher research movement with a desire to understand the dynamics of the teaching and learning situation in the context of dance from an experiential point of view.

Teacher educators as researchers: A profile of research in Israeli teacher colleges versus university departments of education

The teacher research movement has encouraged the development of practitioner research action-oriented and reflective studies among teachers and teacher educators alike. This study compares the profile of research conducted in the Israeli academic teacher colleges with that performed by university faculty. A content analysis of the 204 papers presented at the recent conference of the Israeli Association of Educational Research reveals, that teacher college research indeed focuses on teacher education issues and the relevant study populations. Yet, it does not depart from traditional university research in terms of types of studies and research methods. Dream and reality are therefore mixed in teacher education research.

‘Globalisations’: is the teacher research movement a critical and emancipatory response?

Rapid changes in the world due to the emergence of an information society, scientific and technological developments, and a growing capitalist global economy have made intercultural and inter-ethnic contacts a fairly ordinary phenomenon. However, paradoxically, cultural diversity has had to cope with powerful homogenising instruments of a globalised planet; consequently, cultural issues cannot be considered apart from power relations. In education, a recent phenomenon – the teacher research movement – has tried to fight against conservative and dominant forms of teaching and teacher education. In this article, it is argued that teacher research, as an international movement, has the potential to become a counter-hegemonic strategy to construct critical teacher education approaches in a globalised world.

The Teacher Research Movement: A Decade Later

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.

The Teacher Research Movement: A Decade Later

The Teacher Research Movement: A Decade Later

Teacher research: the question that persists

This is a critical moment in the evolution of the teacher research movement, which is now widespread and connected to an interesting, although not wholly consistent, array of educational efforts nationwide. The authors argue that at this point in the movement, the most persistent question — the one that underlies all others — has to do with the relationship of teacher research to knowledge for and about teaching. In this article they analyse some of the most visible writing about teacher research and the knowledge question, particularly the issues of epistemology and methodology that are receiving considerable attention in the literature and serving as the basis for an emerging critique of the movement. At the conclusion of the article, the authors explore a small but growing body of literature that takes on the knowledge question differently, and opens up the conversation to provocative new avenues for investigation.

Developing Standards for Teacher-Research in TESOL

* A critical moment in the teacher-research movement came with the publication in 1975 of Stenhouse's introduction to curriculum research and development. Stenhouse argued that only when curriculum research and development belonged to teachers through a healthy teacherresearcher agenda would educational improvement emerge from it. Twenty years later, the TESOL community is beginning to respond to the call, although interest in the notion of teacher-research in TESOL has, in fact, grown substantially over the past 7 or 8 years. This growth has been marked by the publication of practical manuals (Nunan, 1989), the staging of a biennial Teachers Develop Teachers Research conference, and an increase in the number of teacher-research presentations at international conferences such as those of TESOL and the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language. Within the TESOL organization, interest has also quickened in recent years. In 1995, an ad hoc committee of the Board of Directors was established to articulate a position on the place of research within a teachers' organization; to provide a clear, reasoned, and coherent direction for TESOL's research agenda; and to develop a set of strategies for promoting teacher-research within the TESOL community. This move was followed by a half-day symposium before the 1996 convention to take the issues further. Out of these initiatives emerged a number of practical suggestions, including the idea of establishing a distinguished teacher-researcher award.

Ideological Divergences in a Teacher-Research Group

This article is about the role played by ideology in a teacher-research group. Treatments of teacher research remain mainly directed at clarifying the content, the status, and the boundaries of the research practice engaged in by teachers and describing how teacher research contrasts with “university research” with regard to these elements. We focus on the differing ideologies of research, teaching/learning, and writing held and developed by the members of a teacher-research group. The concept of ideology is used to emphasize that beliefs about society, politics, and cognition were intimately bound up in the teacher researchers’ different perspectives. In analyzing the ideological positions that developed within the group, and the conflicts and interchanges among participants, we show that there exist important divisions within the teacher-research movement that are intellectually creative and socially important in their potential to generate needed discussion of assumptions underlying pedagogic practice.

Ideological Divergences in a Teacher-Research Group

This article is about the role played by ideology in a teacher-research group. Treatments of teacher research remain mainly directed at clarifying the content, the status, and the boundaries of the research practice engaged in by teachers and describing how teacher research contrasts with “university research” with regard to these elements. We focus on the differing ideologies of research, teaching/learning, and writing held and developed by the members of a teacher-research group. The concept of ideology is used to emphasize that beliefs about society, politics, and cognition were intimately bound up in the teacher researchers’ different perspectives. In analyzing the ideological positions that developed within the group, and the conflicts and interchanges among participants, we show that there exist important divisions within the teacher-research movement that are intellectually creative and socially important in their potential to generate needed discussion of assumptions underlying pedagogic practice.