Action research in language education

Cambridge Journal of Education

Consoli

2021

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Framed in action research, the authors investigated the perceptions and experiences of a cohort of student-teachers as they learned about and explored for the first time teacher research in a selfcontained module as part of a four-year pre-service or initial English language teacher education (IELTE) programme in southern Argentina. The module, 'Research in English Language Teaching', ran from March-November 2018. It was led by a teacher educator based in Argentina and a UK-based colleague who acted as an external academic advisor. Drawing on qualitative research, data collection strategies included: the tutor's journal; student-teachers' journals; assignments; research proposals; report drafts; presentations; group discussions; interactions between the tutors; and endof-course interviews. The findings show that the module had a positive effect on student-teachers' identity, their English language proficiency, and the role of reflection in feedback processes. The student-teachers appreciated teacher research as reflective practice and as a source of professional development.

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Initial English language teacher education: the effects of a module on teacher research

Cambridge Journal of Education

Consoli

2021

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“…Within the paradigm of qualitative research we adopted an ecological perspective. By an ecological perspective, we refer to data collection and interpretation of findings in the context in which the data originated (Banegas & Consoli, 2020;Edwards & Burns, 2016): the ateneo. Hence, data collection did not demand teachers' extra time.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ateneo as an effective model of continuing professional development: findings from southern Argentina

Pedagogies: An International Journal

Glatigny

2021

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Despite a sustainable research interest in different forms of teachers' professional development, scant international attention has been paid to forms of professional development which are implemented in South America. Based on a qualitative research design, this study explores the impact of the ateneo as an innovative model of continuing professional development. An ateneo is a model which supports teacher reflection and change in teaching practices by concentrating on context-responsive practical issues such as lesson planning and delivery. The study was carried out with 22 teachers of English as a foreign language in southern Argentina. Data were gathered through the teachers' lesson plans, whole group discussions, and the teachers' final assignments to receive credits for completion of the ateneo. Drawing on thematic analysis, the participants envisaged the ateneo as a practice-oriented, dynamic, interaction-based, and personal as well as collective space for developing teaching skills and professional knowledge. In particular, findings show that the participants exhibited an improvement in lesson contextualization, sequencing and transitioning, maximization of resources, class time management, and reflective teaching. The study argues that the ateneo became successful given the shared teacher identity among the participants and the course tutors, and the explicit focus on the teachers' daily practices.

“…All these tools are naturally used by teachers in their classrooms and belong in their professional cultures. In addition to them, once ethical considerations have been fully addressed (Banegas & Consoli, 2020;Mitra & McCormick, 2017), teachers may even take photographs or video/ audiorecord their lessons in order to engage in conversational analysis to detect interactional patterns that promote or compromise learning. Nevertheless, educational action research should not only drive teachers to scrutinize their practices but also to encourage them to review the extant literature on the topics they investigate.…”

Section: Educational Action Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Philosophical Tenets of Action Research in Education

Castro

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education

2020

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The juxtaposition of action and research conveys a sense of the richness and complexity of action research, yet it does not entirely translate its nuanced and sophisticated philosophy. In turn, an understanding of this philosophy is crucial for grasping action research’s radical originality. In this context at least, it may be more accurate to define action research by drawing on the term practice, even though it does not form part of the basic conceptual pair. Not only does practice make it easier for us to trace the constellation of philosophical influences behind the theory and practice of action research—from pragmatism to postmodernism, including Greek philosophy and Marxist and psychoanalytic schools of thought—but also to identify where these influences end and action research emerges as the bearer of a nontransferable view. Beyond this, at the heart of action research lies a structural affinity with singular social practices, which are its key ontological sites—that is, the context where action research in each case fills its epistemological and ethical dimensions with meaning. What kind of knowledge does action research aim to produce? What behaviors do action researchers engage in? Compared to other research paradigms in the social sciences—the field of education included—the specific quality of action research has to do with how its epistemological and ethical dimensions are shaped not from without but from within any given social practice. This is the key to its specific ecology. In action research, the epistemological and ethical realms do not stand beyond or above the situated social practices, with their values, principles of procedure, knowledges, and discourses, including their own literacies and modalities—in short, their own internal cultures. Action research conceives and presents itself as a rational and systematic way for members of the different social practices to build and rebuild their own epistemologies and ethics precisely by drawing on, and selecting from, their own internal cultures. How does this ecological perspective translate itself in education? Education is one of the key areas in which action research is generally applied, together with welfare and healthcare. Yet apart from the specific use of action research by educators, action research carries within itself a specific educational philosophy (and a political philosophy as well) which underlies its application, regardless of the specific social practice in which it takes place. In the same way that action research is politically democratic, educationally speaking action research is participatory, meaning that learning, improvement, or development can only be realized through a self-determining process in which people act and research freely upon and among themselves. This is precisely what action research facilitates in the different social practices. Action research is always educational, whether one develops it in education, welfare, or healthcare. As a result, action research has contributed a clear-cut pedagogical model that some critical educators have already imported to their own educational institutions and practices: youth participatory action research.