Teacher-As-Researcher
The concept of teacher-as-researcher
is included in recent literature on educational reform, which encourages teachers
to be collaborators in revising curriculum, improving their work environment, professionalizing
teaching, and developing policy. Teacher research has its roots in action research.
What Is Action Research?
Action research is deliberate, solution-oriented
investigation that is group or personally owned and conducted. It is characterized
by spiraling cycles of problem identification, systematic data collection, reflection,
analysis, data-driven action taken, and, finally, problem redefinition. The linking
of the terms "action" and "research" highlights the essential features of this method:
trying out ideas in practice as a means of increasing knowledge about and/or improving
curriculum, teaching, and learning (Kemmis & McTaggart, 1982).
While the concept of action research
can be traced back to the early works of John Dewey in the 1920s and Kurt Lewin
in the 1940s, it is Stephen Corey and others at Teachers College of Columbia University
who introduced the term action research to the educational community in 1949. Corey
(1953) defined action research as the process through which practitioners study
their own practice to solve their personal practical problems.
Very often action research is a collaborative
activity where practitioners work together to help one another design and carry
out investigations in their classrooms. Teacher action research is, according to
John Elliott, "concerned with the everyday practical problems experienced by teachers,
rather than the 'theoretical problems' defined by pure researchers within a discipline
of knowledge" (Elliott, cited in Nixon, 1987). Research is designed, conducted,
and implemented by the teachers themselves to improve teaching in their own classrooms,
sometimes becoming a staff development project in which teachers establish expertise
in curriculum development and reflective teaching.
The prevailing focus of teacher research
is to expand the teacher's role as inquirer about teaching and learning through
systematic classroom research (Copper, 1990). The approach is naturalistic, using
participant-observation techniques of ethnographic research, is generally collaborative,
and includes characteristics of case study methodology (Belanger, 1992).
The research study team provides
support and a forum for sharing questions, concerns, and results. Teachers advise
each other and comment on the progress of individual efforts. Engaging in collaborative
action research helps eliminate the isolation that has long characterized teaching,
as it promotes professional dialogue and thus, creates a more professional culture
in schools.
What Is The Purpose Of Teacher Action
Research?
Action research has been employed
for various purposes: for school-based curriculum development, as a professional
development strategy, in preservice and graduate courses in education, and in systems
planning and policy development. Some writers (i.e., Holly, 1990; Jacullo-Noto,
1992; Lieberman, 1988; Oja & Smulyan, 1989; Sagor, 1992) advocate an action
research approach for school restructuring. Action research can be used as an evaluative
tool, which can assist in self-evaluation whether the "self" be an individual or
an institution.
Why Is Teacher Research Important?
The current school restructuring
movement has site-based, shared decision-making at its core. With the newly acquired
autonomy, comes new responsibilities. Teachers, local schools, and school districts
are accountable to all stakeholders for the policies, programs, and practices they
implement. It is not enough for teachers merely to make decisions; they will be
called upon to make informed decisions, decisions which are data driven. Therefore,
it is necessary for teachers to be much more deliberate in documenting and evaluating
their efforts. Action research is one means to that end. It is very likely the emergence
of site-based decisionmaking has precipitated the resurgence of action research;
the two seem to be complementary. Action research assists practitioners and other
stakeholders in identifying the needs, assessing the development processes, and
evaluating the outcomes of the changes they define, design, and implement. The self-evaluation
aspect of action research (by educators and/or students) is congruent with the philosophies
contained in the Total Quality Education and Outcomes Based Education movements
currently being advanced by numerous states and districts throughout the nation.
What Are The Effects Of Action Research?
There is a growing body of evidence
of the positive personal and professional effects that engaging in action research
has on the practitioner (Goswami & Stillman, 1987; Lieberman, 1988). Action
research provides teachers with the opportunity to gain knowledge and skill in research
methods and applications and to become more aware of the options and possibilities
for change. Teachers participating in action research become more critical and reflective
about their own practice (Oja & Pine, 1989; Street, 1986). Teachers engaging
in action research attend more carefully to their methods, their perceptions and
understandings, and their whole approach to the teaching process.
Lawrence Stenhouse once said, "It
is teachers who, in the end, will change the world of the school by understanding
it" (cited in Rudduck, 1988). As teachers engage in action research they are increasing
their understanding of the schooling process. What they are learning will have great
impact on what happens in classrooms, schools, and districts in the future. The
future directions of staff development programs, teacher preparation curricula,
as well as school improvement initiatives, will be impacted by the things teachers
learn through the critical inquiry and rigorous examination of their own practice
and their school programs that action research requires.
Teachers' action research questions
emerge from areas they consider problematic, from discrepancies between what is
intended and what actually occurs. As Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1990) suggest, the
unique feature of teachers' questions is that they emanate solely neither from theory
nor from practice, but from "critical reflection on the intersection of the two"
(p. 6). Teacher research will force the re-evaluation of current theories and will
significantly influence what is known about teaching, learning, and schooling.
It has been said, "Teachers often
leave a mark on their students, but they seldom leave a mark on their profession"
(Wolfe, 1989). Through the process and products of action research teachers will
do both.
Source: Beverly Johnson, ERIC Digest, Mar 93, ERIC Clearinghouse on Teacher
Education, Washington, D.C.