Teachers as researchers: developing an inquiry ethic

Abstract

This article explores the process through which teachers go as they engage in teacher research that attempts to answer 'burning questions' about their practice. It reports on the experiences of 45 in-service teachers enrolled in an MA in Education program as they develop an inquiry ethic while engaging in research projects that require them to collect and analyze data, interact with instructors and peers, engage in dialogue surrounding inquiry, and draw conclusions from their data collection and analysis during a semester-long course. Based on data collected over a two-year period, the authors attempt to pose a framework for the development of such an ethic, positing the dimensions of the stance that teacher researchers demonstrate as they begin to view themselves as part of the ongoing dialogue between theory and practice. It further describes the nature of each dimension as well as the products of the teacher research projects.

Bad Inquiry: How Accountability, Power, and Deficit Thinking Hinder Pre-Service Practitioner Inquiry

“…Serving as an umbrella term complete with many "versions and variances," (Dana, 2016, p. 1) practitioner inquiry draws from the traditions of action research, teacher research, self-study, and classroom research (Dana, 2015), which allows teachers to focus in a sustained, intentional, and systematic way on the learning needs of their students and frees them from a reliance on standardized test scores or the work of outside experts to direct their instruction (Ulanoff, Vega-Castaneda, & Quiocho, 2003;Webb, 2002). Each of the traditions of teacher research acknowledges "the shared aims of disrupting mainstream knowledge paradigms and advocating for a more equitable society" (Crawford-Garrett, Anderson, Grayson, & Suter, 2015, p. 480;Hulse & Hulme, 2012).…”

“…While not lacking in value, mainstream knowledge paradigms privilege "outsider" knowledge that lacks the first-hand perspective that practitioners are able to bring to investigations of their own classroom practice (Cochran- Smith & Lytle, 2009;Campbell, 2013). Ulanoff et al (2003) argue that it is this "unique perspective" that "affords the teacher researcher an insider (emic) perspective in terms of the data s/he gathers and analyzes" allowing teachers to see through the eyes of both "practitioner and investigator" (p. 404). In this way, practitioner research has the potential to serve as "a vehicle for teachers to question the educational status quo" (Dana, 2016, p. 1), shifting the teacher from transmitter of knowledge to creator of knowledge.…”

Syncing Our Cycles: An Inquiry-Based Coaching Model for Distant Supervision

“…Practitioner inquiry, or "systematic, intentional inquiry by teachers," (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993 p. 5), draws from the traditions of action research, teacher research, self-study, and classroom research (Dana, 2015). Inquiry has inspired teachers to reclaim their rights to knowledge and its production-to wrest the term "research" back from outside observers and highlight insider knowledge (Ulanoff, Vega-Castaneda, & Quiocho, 2003;Webb, 2002). Indeed, inquiry "engages teachers in the design, data collection, and interpretation of data around a question" (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2014, p. 8), thus empowering educators to participate in "capital-R Research" (Schiera, 2014, p. 107).…”