Beginning Words: Studying Teacher Research

Students are recognized as individuals whose very selves are informed by the complexity of their multiple and diverse backgrounds and experiences; teachers are seen as contributing players in the intricate dance of the teaching/learning moment. Despite numerous publications which speak to the value...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:English education 2004-07, Vol.36 (4), p.259-262
Main Authors: Fleischer, Cathy, Fox, Dana L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beginning teachers
Classrooms
Control Groups
Educational Change
Educational research
Educators
Language arts
Language teachers
Learning
Research studies
School publications
Snakes
Students
Studies
Teacher Researchers
Teachers
Teaching
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Summary:Students are recognized as individuals whose very selves are informed by the complexity of their multiple and diverse backgrounds and experiences; teachers are seen as contributing players in the intricate dance of the teaching/learning moment. Despite numerous publications which speak to the value of this kind of study for school reform (such as Teacher Research for Better Schools by Mohr, Rogers, Sanford, Noccrino, MacLean, and Clawson [2003]); publications which lay out methodologies for conducting systematic teacher research (such as Hubbard and Power's [1999] Living the Questions); publications which model how teacher research becomes a vehicle for new theory building (such as Gallas' [2003] Imagination and Literacy); and even publications which pose critical questions about the teacher research (such as Cochran-Smith and Lytle's [1999] "The Teacher Research Movement: A Decade Later") teacher research-in some people's minds-is still seen as haphazard reflection: valuable for a teacher, perhaps, but certainly not something that benefits the profession in a large-scale way. Might we not have much to learn from systematic study of the forms and forums of research in which these professional practitioners work? (p. 111) What might happen if English educators took on Stock's charge and began more systematic study of the genre of teacher research?
ISSN:0007-8204
1943-2216
DOI:10.58680/ee20042814