Teacher as Researcher: Teacher Action Research in Teacher Education
Mariana Souto-Manning
Childhood Education, 2012, Volume 88, Issue 1, Page 54–56
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Over the years, I found that the message concerning the critical importance of teacher research to good and responsive teaching could not be delivered through mere talk, but instead should be co-constructed through engagement in living the process of problem posing in the teacher education classroom.
in three institutions of higher education, I have found that teacher education research is often an invisible practice and often not conceptualized as “real” research.
!There is a stigma around big R and little r research
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Teacher education research allows us to theorize from our own practices and, in turn, transform them.
Historically, “teacher action research” and “teacher research” have been terms mostly used at the PK-12 level. Yet, embracing it fully and visibly in the teacher education realm is important because it raises awareness of the critical and transformative aspects of teaching and learning. It allows teacher research to be made visible and validated beyond the PK-12 realm.
Bissex and Bullock (1987) highlighted that teacher research is not bound by traditional paradigms— teachers (and teachers of teachers, also known as teacher educators) are invited to engage in research by identifying their questions, documenting their observations, analyzing and interpreting data in light of their theories, and sharing situated representations with the larger community, hopefully shedding light onto other contexts. But why? Why would someone add another role to their already complex professional lives?
!Teacher action researchTeacher action research
Teacher Action Research, Simply
Teacher action research involves a systematic and sustained study of some aspect of teaching and learning.
[[Souto-Manning 2012]] p.2
When we write and discuss ...
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As Goswami and Rutherford (2009) wrote: At the end of the day as teachers, we are often left wondering: Are we doing enough? How do we know? These are essential questions that occupy the minds and hearts of so many of us when we walk into our classrooms. This is the reason we do teacher research. (p. 2) Teacher research just isn’t like other forms of research, in part because there is no blueprint for how to do it . . . there is no single definition for what “it” is. (p. 1).
According to Freire (1970), for transformative education to take place, we must blur the traditionally defined roles of teacher and learner. Teachers and learners become teacher-learners and learner-teachers. Authority becomes dialectically negotiated. This does not imply lack of responsibility
Dewey’s notion of teachers as students of learning (1904) invites teacher educators to engage in teacher research in their own classrooms.
!How teacher note taking can connect thinking and instruction ##
Most certainly, teacher research should lead to transformative actions. ## !Must there be a university partnership for action research? ## here I propose that teacher educators need to engage in action research that seeks to actively transform the self, curriculum, and teaching—and, ultimately, society.
“While it is easy for teacher educators to affirm that they do not have time to engage in action research, it is important to not only talk the talk about the value of rethinking teaching, but walk the walk by engaging in transformative teaching themselves” (Souto-Manning, 2011, p. 108).
“Our teaching is transformed in important ways because we become theorists who articulate our intentions, test assumptions, and find connections with practice” (Goswami & Rutherford, 2009, p. 3). Simply stated, we become better teachers through teacher research.
While it is true that there is no blueprint, there are, in fact, shared characteristics held in common by teacher research and other research methods. When engaging in teacher research, the challenge becomes choosing among the different methodologies to find the one that best serves the specific context and particulars. (Goswami & Rutherford, 2009, pp. 1-2)
Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. (2009). Inquiry as stance: Practitioner research for the next generation. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Link Bookends
[Not cited][#ref] Freire, 1970
Goswami, D., & Rutherford, M. (2009). “What’s going on here?”: Seeking answers through teacher inquiry. In D. Goswami, C. Lewis, M. Rutherford, research (pp. 1-11). New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Link Bookends
Goswami, D., Lewis, C., Rutherford, M., & Waff, D. (Eds.). (2009). On teacher inquiry: Approaches to language and literacy research. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Link Bookends
Souto-Manning, M. (2011). A different kind of teaching: Culture circles as professional development. In V. Kinloch (Ed.), Urban literacies: Critical perspectives on language, learning, and community (pp. 95-110). New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Link Bookends