A new model of collaborative action research; theorising from inter-professional practice development

The development of pedagogies to meet the needs of diverse communities can be supported through inter-professional practice development. This article explores one such experience, that of speech and language therapists developing a new video-based coaching approach for teachers and teaching assistants in multi-cultural settings with high numbers of children learning English as an additional language. To support them in developing and trialling the coaching approach, the expertise of a teacher-educator and educational researcher was provided through a university business voucher. It is this working relationship that the article has as its practical focus, as it transformed to one of collaborative action research. The action research is described, providing the context for a discussion of the characteristics of collaborative action research and the proposal of a new model. This model offers a way of conceptualising collaborative action research through time, and of recognising the importance of the partners’ zones of proximal, contributory and collaborative activities in sustaining change and knowledge-creation.     

Inter-professional pedagogical collaboration between teachers and their out-of-school partners

Teachers cross boundaries when they collaborate with out-of-school partners to provide more authentic learning experiences for students. Using the framework of boundary crossing, the study draws on interview data from schools and their out-of-school partners to examine the research question of how the research participants viewed the beginning of their inter-professional pedagogical collaboration. We use this term because in the context of primary and secondary education contexts mere inter-professional collaboration has usually referred to activities aimed, for example, at addressing children’s social exclusion. The starting point for inter-professional pedagogical collaboration can be seen through the identification of boundaries and boundary crossing. Using theory-based analysis to categorise the interview data, inter-professional pedagogical collaboration became evident in terms of (1) shared pedagogical knowledge, (2) finding roles in new situations and contexts, and (3) resources for collaboration. Recognising these can help schools respond to the needs of twenty-first century learning.     

The AAMC Report on Information Management

No abstract available for this article.     

Inter-professional collaboration in action research

This article describes an example of inter-professional action research conducted by teachers and university-based researchers/teacher educators in a vocational college in the Netherlands. The research was aimed at the professional learning of the teachers on their pedagogical approach to a new curriculum initiative. Despite a difficult context in the Netherlands for a type of action research in which teachers and researchers work in democratic collaboration on the improvement of teaching practices, this inter-professional collaboration worked out well. The participants worked, inspired by shared commitment towards the students, as equal partners. In the findings and conclusion insights developed about key elements for inter-professional collaborative research, such as the importance of common relevance, shared responsibility for the research and mutual trust and respect for differences in professional identities and working conditions are addressed.