Action research in initial teacher education: an explorative study

The aim of the study was to describe students’ and teacher educators’ practical experience with action research and to identify a number of special points for consideration (opportunities and limitations) which could play a role in putting research into practice in concrete terms in the courses. Students and teacher educators on three Dutch initial teacher education programmes which treat action research as both a means of professional development and a necessary professional qualification were involved. These were programmes for specific teaching levels and subjects in Dutch schools. Four special points for consideration are identified: action research and the educational core qualifications of the profession; difference between action research by student teachers during their initial education and experienced teachers in their own workplace; students’ mixed experiences and perceptions of research; and embedded research‐based activities in the programme. The authors conclude that action research should be considered from different perspectives: as a professional approach, a body of skills that is needed to make the connection between knowing that and knowing why; and as a way of improving practice by systematically building up practice‐based knowledge.     

Bridging theory and practice in Norwegian teacher education through action research

Handling the relationship between theory and practice is seemingly an endless challenge in Norwegian teacher education, and bridging theory and practice is highlighted whenever discussions about improvement of teacher education are raised. This article contributes to this discussion by shedding new light on the relationship through an analysis of empirical findings recorded in a subject-oriented action research project. The project was conducted as part of the subject Religion, Philosophies of life and Ethics integrated into teacher education at the University of Stavanger in 2008/09, and its name was ‘Teaching about Religious Diversity in School – Applying and Developing an Interpretive Cultural Approach to Religious Education’. As the name indicates, the project has tried out a particular approach to religious education. The tryout has been done by a community of practice. In this article I am asking whether findings from the project are pointing towards pedagogical approaches possible to categorize on a meta-level, and in which way these detected approaches shed new light upon the relationship between theory and practice in teacher education.     

Educational psychology and the reform of teacher education

Benton and Hoyt (1989) perform a service for educational psychology by obtaining empirical evidence about educational psychologists' reactions to changes in teacher education proposed by the Holmes Group and the Carnegie Commission. Their paper should serve to stimulate debate about the proper role of educational psychology in teacher education. In this paper, we challenge the empirical findings reported by Benton and Hoyt and suggest reasons why the findings may misrepresent educational psychologists' interest in teacher education. We argue that some of the Holmes and Carnegie recommendations contradict the emerging consensus among cognitive psychologists about the contextually bound nature of knowledge. Benton and Hoyt conceptualize educational psychology according to the traditional middleperson viewpoint and make recommendations with respect to educational psychology that presume this conceptualization. We counter that the middleperson viewpoint is being made obsolete by changes in psychology, and describe an alternative conception of educational psychology. This alternative conception leads to a set of alternative recommendations about the appropriate role of educational psychology in the reform of teacher education.     

Transformational practice: critical teacher research in pre-service teacher education

This article traces the experiences of three pre-service teachers as they engaged in teacher research as part of their teacher education program and considers how teacher research might disrupt dominant paradigms that aim to de-contextualize teaching and offer one-size-fits-all solutions to address inequities. In particular, the article examines: the role of the teacher’s personal and academic history in the design of their teacher research projects; how their research worked to disrupt and complicate classroom cultures and practices; and the ways in which the pre-service teachers interpreted their research in light of new contexts during their first year of teaching. This work has critical implications in an era when teacher education programs are under attack, including: the value of drawing on pre-service teachers' lived experiences as an entry point into inquiry; creating highly localized inquiries; and positioning novice teachers as knowledgeable practitioners who are able to share research with colleagues.     

Transforming critical and participative teacher research into communicative action: a possible direction for teacher professional learning

ABSTRACT

This paper is an account of how a group of Japanese English language teachers, who questioned current teacher professional education and English language education reforms, learnt to challenge the dominant discourse and find ways of conducting more democratic teacher professional education. It describes how those teachers, including the author, generated a collective theory on communicative competence through the process of their inquiry. It explains how they came to appreciate the action research methodology used for this study, grounded in reflective practice, which in turn helped to develop the author’s understanding of second person action research. It also tells how the teachers learnt to take the initiative in communicating the thinking which informed their practices to others and began to engage in ‘communicative action’ As a result of these outcomes, the paper suggests a potential new form of teacher professional learning aimed towards more democratic relationships between participants. It is hoped that the implications of the research findings could contribute to broader discussions about policy pertaining to teacher professional development.     

Responding to the challenge of providing stronger research base for teacher education: research discourses in the Norwegian national research school for teacher education

Background and purpose: The purpose of this article is to shed light on how the research projects of 140 PhD candidates in the National Research School for Teacher Education in Norway (NAFOL) respond to the challenges faced by Norwegian teacher education regarding the demand for higher competence and a stronger research base. The concept of NAFOL is of interest from an international perspective because of its focus on facilitating teacher educators to achieve a PhD. Since 2001, Norwegian educational policy has had a strong focus on strengthening teacher education and making it more research-based than before. From 2017, all new teachers in Norway are expected to take a master’s degree. In order to accomplish this, there is a need for many new supervisors with a PhD in teacher education institutions. NAFOL is a unique project: a consortium of 23 participating network institutions within teacher education. The research school includes 140 research fellows, all of whom wish to achieve a PhD suitable for work in teacher education. The research school is funded by the Norwegian Research Council, originally for a project period from 2010 to 2016. The research school has had a positive external midway evaluation, and the project period has been extended with four cohorts of students to the end of 2021. However, this study is the first one looking into the research projects of this young generation of teacher education researchers. The research question posed in this article is: how do the research projects of the NAFOL PhD candidates contribute to the research base in teacher education? Main argument: The main argument in this article is that the potential impact of this research school is dependent on the quality of the large number of PhD projects connected to teacher education and education in general developed within the research school. The quality is likely to be good because, among other reasons, these projects are scrutinised by the research school community. The challenges these research projects face, located as they are between solidarity regarding grants from the funds financing the PhD candidates, solidarity with the aims of education, and the wish to contribute to innovation, might prove to be able to be met. These research projects have the potential to create innovation in teacher education research through ‘border crossing’ between different educational discourses, as well as through creating new knowledge in meta-studies based on the results from several projects. Sources of evidence and method: In this article, project abstracts from 140 PhD candidates participating in NAFOL are analysed in terms of their theme and problem formulation. The analysis is inspired by discourse analytical thinking – namely that in a certain situation, several conditions for action exist. In this study, these conditions for action are made apparent in the choice of theme and problem formulation in the research projects. The content analysis is focused on ‘signal words’, because these words might signal positioning in different educational discourses. Results: In the study, three main discourses can be seen as influencing the choice of topic and the problem formulation in the projects: a goal-oriented educational discourse, a ‘Bildung’ (i.e. character formation, or personal growth – ‘danning’ in Norwegian) and democracy discourse, and a critical knowledge-producing discourse. These discourses are constituted when the PhD candidates start their research projects but the conditions for action are ever-changing and, hence, the findings in this study cannot, of course, be considered as ‘final’. The development of these discourses within the research community of NAFOL is one way of scrutinising the research projects in order to make a contribution to qualified teacher education research. Conclusion: ‘Border crossing’ between discourses in research projects concerned with what might be, and what can make a difference in a knowledge society could be a key way of enhancing the future for a young generation of researchers in teacher education. The research projects carried out by the PhD candidates in NAFOL have the potential to develop both new knowledge and new discourses of importance for Norwegian teacher education, as well as for a broader international context regarding professional development in teacher education and education in general. The view of the teacher education profession – and on what a teacher educator can be – could become more fully informed than before the candidates’ participation in the research school.     

Rationality and rationalisation in teacher education policy discourse in New Zealand

Background:?A newly elected centre-right coalition government in New Zealand was forced to deal with the cumulative fiscal consequences of two unforeseen challenges: a global financial crisis in September 2008 and two major seismic events in the country's second largest city in 2009 and 2010. This paper examines the way in which policies for initial and continuing teacher education were reshaped thereafter and the justifications provided by government for these changes.

Purpose:?The paper examines the plausibility of the government's contemporary ‘crisis’ discourse and aims to show how ‘rational’ education policy changes also carry broader ideological and political agendas for teacher education. Thus, current changes to teacher education policy are located in the historical context of trends over the last two decades.

Sources of Evidence:?The paper uses official statements by government and officials to show how they justified the policy changes as the only possible responses to an external economic crisis. Secondary sources of statistical economic data and policy texts are used to demonstrate that equally plausible alternative responses were overlooked, rejected or ignored.

Main argument:?The paper construes teacher education policy as both text and discourse. It is argued that the media statements of politicians and officials are intended to secure popular approval for public education austerity measures, while at the same time masking an underlying political and ideological project and ignoring the informed policy rebuttals of some educationists.

Conclusions:?The steps taken in New Zealand to respond to a short- to medium-term national fiscal crisis have major long-term consequences for teacher education. Most apparent is the continued failure to acknowledge the major incremental reductions in public subsidies for initial teacher education that have occurred year on year since the early 1990s and, instead, to reiterate the new public management ideology of further public service efficiencies.     

Researching teacher education for inclusion: using a methodological memo

This article describes how a methodological memo (MM) was used in a research and development project designed to reform initial teacher education (ITE). A MM was used to explore what often remains an opaque part of the research process – the relationships between theory and practice that underpin many research studies. Yet, without detailed accounts of the research process, it is difficult to understand this relationship. In this case, a memo was used to record the methodological and analytical dilemmas that were encountered in a study of the theoretical and pedagogic processes involved in developing a new ITE course so that primary and secondary teachers are better prepared to respond to increasing diversity in schools. This article addresses how developing and sharing transparency in the research process can help clarify contested concepts associated with a research project and provides the foundation for rich theoretical debate.     

Teacher researchers in action research in a heavily centralized education system

Action research is characterized by a new paradigm of empowering teachers to monitor their own practices in a more autonomous manner with a vision of challenging and improving their own techniques of teaching through their own participatory research. Yet in spite of this apparently radical shift in the function of the teacher from the constant consumer of scientific theories to a researcher, as envisioned, the concept of action research as an in-service teacher education strategy has not received due attention in practice. For this reason, the presented case study was undertaken to examine whether the notion of action research by teachers was a viable option for in-service teacher development in a highly centralized education system. More specifically, this paper sought to answer whether teachers have any vision of what they can achieve with action research, whether there is scepticism on the part of teachers about the effectiveness and feasibility of action research as practice-based undertaking, and whether there are inherent structural problems that preclude teachers from undertaking such a role. Three English Language Teaching teachers were involved in this action research. The findings indicate that teachers, being capable of carrying out action research, were quite positive about action research and hopeful for overcoming some inadequacies in their educational environment, making it an asset for personal-professional development despite a highly centralized education system.     

How teachers become action researchers and how teacher educators become their facilitators

The article contributes to the theory of action research by focusing upon kinds of action an individual may undertake in relation to their research endeavour. The article explores action as illusion, as occurring at different speeds according to context, as ‘cure’, as repair to maintain a system, as system improvement, as border skirmishes, as deconstruction and as stealth action. Each of these kinds of action has implications for the action researcher seeking to bring about change. The article explores the ways in which the action researcher can challenge the status quo and bring about creative, educative, democratic frameworks for living in society.     

Teacher education as identity construction: insights from action research

This paper reports on the results of a qualitative study that explored the experiences of one group of pre‐service English language teachers in Hong Kong as they undertook an action research project as part of their undergraduate teacher training programme. Grounded in a theory of teacher identity construction as both practice and discourse, the paper examines how participation in an action research project by one group of pre‐service English language teachers in Hong Kong shaped their experiences of becoming teachers. The study indicates that as teacher researchers, the trainee teachers contested previously held perceptions about their engagement in teaching, their images of teachers and teaching, as well as their alignment with some aspects of contemporary educational discourse. Implications for teacher education and future research are also discussed.     

The power of student resistance in action research: teacher educators respond to classroom challenges

The purpose of this research was to study the design and implementation of a newly developed, two‐semester, action research course in a Master of Arts in Teaching program. Over a four‐year period, we (the instructors) used action research methodologies for analysis and evaluation of the course. Throughout this study, students expressed varying reactions to the process of action research, ranging from enthusiasm and acceptance to continual and persistent reluctance to accept the process as ‘real research’. This resistance is the focus of our study. Four years of reflection on our data points to the following reasons for student resistance: lack of understanding about what action research is and its purpose; a discomfort with the emphasis of process over product and the associated investment of time and ability to multi‐task; and willingness to embrace the transformational process of action research as part of learning to teach.     

教育行动研究是幼儿教师成长的重要途径

教育行动研究是教师研究自身教育实践中的问题、改善教育活动质量的一种教育研究形式,这种研究形式使幼儿教师可以在自己的教育实践中,开展研究工作,在研究状态下进行教育工作。这对幼儿教师的成长起着重要的作用：可以提升幼儿教师的社会地位和学术声誉,促进其专业发展;唤起幼儿教师的主体意识,促进教师主动发展;幼儿教师的教育行动研究将会成为我国幼教改革“胶着期”的突破口。     

Assessment in higher education in the professions: action research as an authentic assessment task

The argument of this article is that assessment in higher education in the professions can benefit from quality assessment tasks linked to professional practice. Such an assessment task would need to be authentic requiring considerable intellectual skill as well as attending to the realities of professional demands. The idea of authentic assessment is developed by using five of Boud et al.'s propositions in higher educational assessment. This idea is illustrated by the use of action research in a teaching internship, that is, data driven learning in the workplace which also serves as an assessment task in the final year of a professional Bachelor degree. Some difficulties and some illustrative, positive student reactions are presented.     

Participatory action research as pedagogy: investigating social and ecological justice learning within a teacher education program

A research collective comprised of teacher candidates, graduate students, and faculty set out to investigate the role and impact of social and ecological justice learning in a teacher education program. Amidst the tensions, negotiations, and articulations of the research design, the collective came to recognize the spaces of participatory action research as sites of growth and efficacy toward justice learning. And, each began to perceive themselves as both impacted by educational structures and as agents enacting their own visions of professional practice. These outcomes are discussed in the context of the growing body of participatory action research, emphasizing the dynamic learning precipitated within the intersections of the research collective. The empirical analysis, involving survey and interview data, brought to bear the rarity of events participants (teacher candidates) recognized as invoking meaningful social and ecological justice learning, and goes some way to describe such learning in terms of embodied experience. The paper closes with a selection of testimonials provided by members of the research collective, offering personal accounts of what was gained through participating in the research process.     

The promises and limitations of international comparative research on teacher education

This article revisits methodological perspectives on international comparative research on teacher education (TE). Benefits and problems related to comparative educational research methodology in general are discussed. Further, methodological issues associated with designing and carrying out an international comparative study on TE are addressed using a multi-level study on teacher education in Finland and Norway an as example. Towards the end of the article, the promises and limitations of international comparative research on TE are presented. Important benefits of comparative education on TE include widening the understanding of one’s own and other TE systems as well as gaining an understanding of international trends. However, uncritical use of such research may lead to decontextualised, ahistorical and standardised transfer and development of education and educational policies. The article concludes by urging researchers in the field of international comparative research on teacher education to address the questions: What is being compared? How is context addressed?     

Exploring pedagogies to elevate inquiry: teaching action research in the third space

ABSTRACT

This study chronicles a semester long inquiry focused on the impacts of pedagogical strategies informed by the tenets of third space theory on my own practices and understanding of students’ learning outcomes in an action research course. As I applied new instructional strategies to promote discourse and critical inquiry, I reflexively explored how these approaches enhanced my impacts on students’ learning and praxis of action research. This paper first provides a brief introduction to third space theory and then describes how I infused this framework into my course approach, the different types of data collected and analyzed to gauge the impacts of new pedagogies, and findings that emerged. These are summarized in relation to the conditions that both undergirded and elevated students’ engagement, and directions for further research to advance the praxis of action research across teacher education contexts.     

Archival research as living inquiry: an alternate approach for research in the histories of teacher education

Exploring the role of archives in recovering the histories of teachers' lives and the potential of archival research as living inquiry, a non-traditional perspective is offered concerning life writing as a way into an epistemological storying of the past. Archival research as living inquiry is examined both as a methodological approach to theorizing practice, and as a method of gathering information in public collections that is rendered through life writing. The application of this emerging form of research has the potential to change structures of teaching and learning, and in the process, provide suitable methods to write accounts of educational histories. In this case, I document my archival quest into Bessie's story as an exemplar of how reflective practice can contribute to becoming a researcher of history through unorthodox approaches and methods. This inquiry is motivated by questions that include: Why should a teacher of the past matter to teachers today? What value do archives hold in teacher education? How might we rethink our methods of inquiry to give meaning to the lives of women teachers?