Abstract
The decades-long and ongoing era of accountability-driven education is defined by top-down reforms targeting the ostensibly poor performance of public schools. Teacher researchers—who identify, examine, and mitigate their own problems of practice—offer a powerful counter-narrative. Cultivating and maintaining what is known as an inquiry stance, they hold themselves accountable by devoting their constant curiosity to continual improvement. Acknowledging the value of such reflective practice, this chapter offers insights for teacher education gleaned from a qualitative study of long-term teacher researchers that sought empirical evidence of the premise that an inquiry stance is a career-long habit. Examining the sociopolitical and institutional features that promoted and inhibited their stance of inquiry surfaced the deep scholarly preparation, wide ongoing support, and long-standing relationships that made them who they are. Consequently, this study illuminates how teacher educators can prepare future teacher researchers for going deep, wide, and long.
TopBackground
The concept of teachers as researchers is a global phenomenon, U.S. versions of which date back at least a century (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009; Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2014; Klehr, 2009). Contextual variants like practitioner inquiry and action research share a common philosophy of resistance to the factory model of education, manifest in Dewey’s belief that schools served democratic, egalitarian purposes and thus required practitioners with cultural-historical awareness (Garte, 2017). Teachers who engage in research honor these roots with inquiries driven by political clarity (Klehr, 2012), provided their school contexts are not prohibitive (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1992). Corey’s (1953) early list of favorable conditions for teachers to engage in research—autonomy, open dialogue, opportunities for innovation, and sufficient time and resources—is often out of reach in the era of standardized testing, and teachers whose research reflects social justice aims are especially in need of supportive school cultures (Dana & Currin, 2017; Schaenen et al., 2012; Snow-Gerono, 2003; Stevenson, 1995).
Schulte and Klipfel (2016) encouraged teacher educators to “mitigate the forces that may otherwise inhibit” novice teacher researchers, e.g., time constraints, the logistics of institutional review, university expectations, or cooperating teachers’ influence (p. 465). Conversely, mandating teacher research in an educator preparation program poses its own threat without sufficient guidance (Dodman et al., 2017). Even in-service teachers who are research-curious benefit from structural supports, such as frameworks or networking opportunities (Clayton et al., 2017; Meyers et al., 2009; Rust & Meyers, 2006), although such features require skilled facilitators (Krell & Dana, 2012), in addition to time if not money (Klehr, 2009). In sum, fostering and furthering teacher-generated research has been a lasting but worthwhile challenge.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Accountability: A descriptor applied to education reforms intended to make schools—and especially teachers—accountable to the public, i.e., taxpayers. Critics suggest such top-down policies, rather than fostering school improvement, narrow the curriculum and hasten teacher burnout.
Inquiry as Stance: The epistemological and ontological perspective of a practitioner researcher whose research transcends a single project to become a perpetual way of knowing and being.
Practitioner Research: An umbrella term for the process whereby professionals engage in systematic inquiry for the sake of improving their practice.
Action Research: A form of participatory inquiry designed to resolve a context-specific problem through some variation of an inquiry cycle and typically encompassing social justice aims.
Teacher Research: A specific type of practitioner research conducted by educators as a form of self-directed professional development.
Long-Term Teacher Researcher: An educational professional who engages in practitioner research for an extended period, ideally through multiple inquiry cycles spanning a career.
Inquiry Cycle: A sequence of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting that can repeat within and beyond a practitioner research project.