Teachers As Researchers

This book provides a critique of teachers' work in a era marked by top-down technical standards. It urges teachers to engage in the debate on educational research by undertaking meaningful teacher research.

This book introduces a comprehensive RTP Model that reframes research to practice knowledge and inclusive education philosophy to promote the sustained use of research to promote and enhance meaningful education for all students.

Describes the process of doing teacher action research and provides examples from teachers themselves. Textbook for pre-service and in-service teacher education courses. Includes suggested activities sections.

With an increasing emphasis on the role of evidence in education, primary school teachers need to find meaningful ways to engage in research. Teachers and Young Researchers in Action supports teachers and children in carrying out meaningful classroom research that can transform practice. An accessible guide, it shows the different ways in which children and teachers can go about their research, the problems they may meet on the way and the tried and tested methods to meet those challenges. Illustrated with rich real-life examples of research projects – exploring rewards and sanctions, values education, school structures and reading for pleasure – it shows how we can celebrate the importance of the voice of the child in school life, benefitting individual children, teachers and schools alike. This accessible book outlines the benefits of children’s research for individual children, teachers and schools as well as providing case studies that demonstrate how young children’s research projects can be successful. Written for teachers by teachers, this go-to resource will be of interest to anyone working with children as researchers looking to improve their practice and in need of guidance and support.

Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers are underrepresented in public schools across the United States of America, with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color making up roughly 37% of the adult population and 50% of children, but just 19% of the teaching force. Yet research over decades has indicated their positive impact on student learning and social and emotional development, particularly for Students of Color and Indigenous Students. A first of its kind, the Handbook of Research on Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers addresses key issues and obstacles to ethnoracial diversity across the life course of teachers’ careers, such as recruitment and retention, professional development, and the role of minority-serving institutions. Including chapters from leading researchers and policy makers, the Handbook is designed to be an important resource to help bridge the gap between scholars, practitioners, and policy makers. In doing so, this research will serve as a launching pad for discussion and change at this critical moment in our country’s history. The volume’s goal is to drive conversations around the issue of ethnoracial teacher diversity and to provide concrete practices for policy makers and practitioners to enable them to make evidence-based decisions for supporting an ethnoracially diverse educator workforce, now and in the future.

This state-of-the-art Companion assembles and assesses the extant research available on teacher education and provides clear guidelines on future directions. It addresses an important need in a collection that will be of value for teachers, teacher educators, policymakers and politicians. There has been little sustained, long-term or systematic research to provide empirical support for the broad aspects of teacher education policy, largely because such research has been chronically underfunded and based on traditional practitioner knowledge. Many of the changes to teacher education are contentious and yet are occurring in rapid succession. These policies and movements have important consequences for education, teacher quality and the future of the teaching profession. At the same time, the policies and initiatives that support these changes seem to be based more on ideology, business interests and tradition than on research and empirical findings. The nature, quality and effectiveness of teacher preparation have increasingly become a central focus for education policy worldwide in a fiercely argued debate among governments, think-tanks, world policy agencies, education researchers and teacher organisations.

"This is a wonderful book with deep insight into the relationship between teachers′ action and result of student learning. It discusses from different angles impact of action research on student learning in the classroom. Writing samples provided at the back are wonderful examples." —Kejing Liu, Shawnee State University Teacher Action Research: Building Knowledge Democracies focuses on helping schools build knowledge democracies through a process of action research in which teachers, students, and parents collaborate in conducting participatory and caring inquiry in the classroom, school, and community. Author Gerald J. Pine examines historical origins, the rationale for practice-based research, related theoretical and philosophical perspectives, and action research as a paradigm rather than a method. Key Features Discusses how to build a school research culture through collaborative teacher research Delineates the role of the professional development school as a venue for constructing a knowledge democracy Focuses on how teacher action research can empower the active and ongoing inclusion of nontraditional voices (those of students and parents) in the research process Includes chapters addressing the concrete practices of observation, reflection, dialogue, writing, and the conduct of action research, as well as examples of teacher action research studies

Assuming no prior knowledge of research methods and techniques, this book is the perfect companion for teachers at all levels undergoing professional development who need to enhance their formal reflection skills. Providing a detailed explanation of what action research is and its importance in terms of whole school development, this book invites the teachers to try out educational research for themselves and adopt an investigative attitude that will help improve and evaluate practice. It includes: * Support and guidance that help you tackle key issues * "Real-life" practical case studies that underline what action research is and how it can be effectively used.

Action Research in the Classroom: Helping Teachers Assess and Improve their Work guides teacher-researchers through the process of using action research in their practice to improve students’ learning and teachers’ teaching. The book uses actual classroom examples to assist aspiring, new, and veteran teachers and those who support them (administrators, department chairpersons, and mentors) in using a six-step process L.E.A.D.E.R. to successfully accomplish and share research conducted by actual classroom teachers. Each step in the L.E.A.D.E.R. process -- (1) L=Look at the Problem, (2) E=Examine what we know; (3) A=Acquire knowledge of school problem-solving; (4) D=Devise a plan for improvement; (5) E=Execute the plan; and, (6) R=Repeat steps and processes as needed -- can guide teachers, administrators, and even parents – and students – in solving their own problems and improving their learning and teaching.

Teachers Investigate Their Work introduces the methods and concepts of action research through examples drawn from studies carried out by teachers. The book is arranged as a handbook with numerous sub-headings for easy reference and fourty-one practical methods and strategies to put into action, some of them flagged as suitable `starters'. Throughout the book, the authors draw on their international practical experience of action research, working in close collaboration with teachers. It is an essential guide for teachers, senior staff and co-ordinators of teacher professional development who are interested in investigating their own practice in order to improve it.