Creating a ‘third space’ in the context of a university–school partnership: supporting teacher action research and the research preparation of doctoral students

Abstract

The focus of the Education Works Personalization Project was to facilitate teams of teacher action researchers whose goal was to personalize their teaching with the support of university partners including doctoral students in education. The subsequent apprentice-like research experience within this university-school partnership provided an opportunity to study the ways in which teacher action research could serve as a vehicle for bridging the culture gap between schools and universities. Both the research team experience and the development of the school-university inquiry/knowledge network were initially characterized by undefined roles accompanied by ambiguous expectations. Although the ambiguity proved difficult initially, those who persisted and engaged in new roles ultimately found these emerging inquiry communities generative and valuable. We have come to conceptualize these generative inquiry communities as third spaces and we describe how oppositional categories framed by the cultural differences between schools and universities can work together to generate new knowledge.

Seeking Time Within Time: Exploring the temporal constraints of women teachers’ experiences as graduate students and novice researchers

“…The proliferation of teacher research, by and about teacher researchers, supports his claim yet also depicts how the field has grown more complicated 461 (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999;Leeman & Wardekker, 2013). For example, teacher-led research has been found to provide opportunities for meaningful professional development (Vrijnsen-de Cortea, den Brok, Kamp, & Bergen, 2013), critical thinking (Hagevik, Aydeniz, & Rowell, 2012), discovery learning (Gray, 2013), collaborative collegial learning (Christie & Menter, 2009), university-school partnerships (Arhar et al, 2013;Thornley et al, 2004), and educational policy development (Rust & Meyers, 2006). Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1999) suggest that because teacher research "is such a generative concept, it can be shaped and reshaped to further virtually any educational agenda" (p. 17).…”

Time constraints experienced by female teacher researchers in Canada and Turkey: challenges to developing an autonomous professional learning mindset

“…For instance, Arhar et al (2013) describe an undertaking in which teachers acting as action researchers worked closely with university partners, as way to personalize their teaching practices while fostering research collaboration between universities and schools. Other examples include professional learning communities (Cochran-Smith and Lytle 2009) as well as professional development networks Meyers 2006, Fowler andProcter 2008) as sponsors of teacher research for professional learning purposes.…”

Creating and Sustaining Professional Learning Partnerships: Activity Theory as an Analytic Tool.

“…Alsup ( 2006) argues that although the school and the university have different practices in preparing teachers, they are both fundamentally concerned with the development of teacher quality. Notions of boundary can be found in university-school partnership literature (Allen, et al, 2013;Arhar et al, 2013;Smedley, 2001;Tsui & Law, 2007;Waitoller & Kozleski, 2013). For example, drawing on the theoretical framework of activity theory, Tsui and Law (2007) claim that contradictions between supervising teachers and tertiary mentors can be resolved by creating a space where all participants can generate collective knowledge by crossing community boundaries in the professional experience.…”

“…There are examples of partnerships that attempt to close this potential separation as does the Professional Learning Partners Program (Arhar, et al, 2013;Allen, et al, 2013;Douglas & Ellis, 2011;Tsui and Law, 2007;Wilson, 2004). Drawing from CHAT (Engeström, 1987(Engeström, , 2001 and literature in boundary practices (Akkerman& Bakker, 2011;Tuomi-Gröhn & Engeström, 2003), we explore a lens to design a Professional Learning Partners Program which aims to connect schools and university.…”