International Perspectives on Teacher Research

S. Borg, H. Sanchez, S. Borg, H. Sanchez

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781137376220
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Teaching Languages

Teacher research is recognized, in ELT and education more generally, as a powerful transformative strategy for teacher development and school improvement. This volume provides original insights into this issue by focusing on the processes involved in becoming and being a teacher researcher.

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Key Issues in Doing and Supporting Language Teacher Research

Simon Borg and Hugo Santiago Sanchez

Introduction

This chapter identifies and discusses key issues in the contemporary literature on teacher research in language teaching and our purpose here is to outline the broader theoretical framework within which the individual chapters which follow are situated. Teacher research in education generally has a long history (see, for example, Noffke 2002; Olson 1990) and is characterized by a substantial body of literature; we will not attempt to provide a comprehensive analysis of this here but rather our focus will be on selected salient themes. After dealing with definitional matters we focus on methodological and practical issues in the conduct of teacher research. We then consider teacher research from the perspective of those who facilitate it, and outline some observations on both the benefits of teacher research and criticisms of it. We conclude with a brief overview of the structure of the book.

Defining teacher research

A minimal definition of teacher research is systematic self-study by teachers (individually or collaboratively) which seeks to achieve real-world impact of some kind and is made public. It is thus systematic – like any form of research – and involves self-study – the focus of inquiry in teacher research is the teacher and their own work. Its goal is real-world impact (i.e. it is not an exercise in generating knowledge for its own sake) and such impact can assume many forms. A wide range of possibilities exist; for example, teacher research may impact on teachers’ beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, skills, and classroom practices. It may impact on students’ beliefs, knowledge and performance, or on some aspect of institutions more generally. Emancipatory views of teacher research (see Hammersley 2004) extend its impact even further to include challenging and promoting change in inequitable social conditions (we return to this notion of teacher research later).

Finally, teacher research needs to be made public, as opposed to being a wholly private activity. Teacher inquiry that remains wholly private should not be called research; this does not imply such activity is not valuable, but research by definition seeks to make a contribution to knowledge and it cannot do so if it is not made public. Private inquiry cannot be scrutinized, reviewed, replicated and built on by others, but research can. Private inquiry, no matter how systematic, is better referred to using terms other than research (e.g. reflective practice).

Teacher research goes by many different names. Practitioner research is a broader term that includes not just teachers but practitioners in other fields (e.g. nurses) who engage in systematic self-study. Action research (e.g. Burns 2010) denotes a particular methodology for doing teacher research which is typically defined by repeated cycles of planning, action, observation and reflection through which changes to practice are evaluated. Classroom research is another term that recurs in the literature; this simply denotes research that is conducted in the classroom (i.e. where the research takes place). Thus while most teacher research is also classroom research, the latter may also be carried out by, for example, university researchers who visit classrooms to collect data but who are not doing teacher research (because they are studying others rather than themselves).

Doing teacher research

Teacher research, in common with research generally, requires teachers to identify an issue to examine, to collect information (i.e. data) relevant to it, to examine and interpret that information, and to reach some conclusions. ‘Conclusions’ is perhaps an unfortunate word in that it suggests a degree of finality that research can never justifiably claim, and therefore the conclusions reached through teacher research are always provisional – i.e. they may be revised as a result of further inquiry.

Teacher research is a methodologically-flexible activity – a wide range of strategies can be used in collecting and analysing data as well as in reporting findings. These strategies can be quantitative, qualitative, or a combination of these (mixed methods research) and the range of specific data collection methods available to teachers is quite extensive, for example: interviews (of various kinds), lesson observation, questionnaires, diaries, group discussions, photos, video, student work, teaching materials, policy documents, drawings, recordings of lessons, note taking, checklists, rating scales, stories, and biographical writing (see, for example, Campbell et al. 2004; Freeman 1998; Kalmbach Phillips and Carr 2010).

Teacher research, then, is not defined by particular research methods and, as in research generally, teachers will choose data collection strategies according to the questions that are being investigated. However, one important practical consideration in teacher research is feasibility, or what Allwright (1997) refers to as sustainability. Teacher research needs to be designed in a way that teachers can manage given the limitations and constraints of their knowledge, skills, and working conditions. A project which requires teachers to invest ten hours a week of their time outside school hours is wholly unfeasible. Similarly, a teacher research project which seeks to collect large volumes of numerical data and to subject these to complex statistical analyses will not succeed. It is essential, then, that decisions to pursue or promote teacher research are based on a sound understanding of what can be feasibly achieved in any given context. This suggests that a feasibility audit may be a useful exercise to engage, addressing questions such as the following:

1. Does the teacher have experience of reflective practice?

2. Do they understand what teacher research is?

3. Are they motivated to do teacher research?

4. Do they have the knowledge required to do research?

5. Do they have the skills required to do research?

6. Will they be able to exercise some autonomy in making decisions about their inquiry?

7. Will they have access to appropriate advice or mentoring?

8. Is the time required for teacher research available?

9. Will the teacher’s school support their efforts to do teacher research?

10. Will the teacher have access to a community of teacher researchers?

11. Will the teacher have opportunities to share their work?

12. Will the teacher have access to appropriate resources?

13. Can teacher research be integrated into the teacher’s routine practices?

14. Does the project have clear potential benefits?

Clearly, where the answer to the majority of these questions is ‘no’, then teacher research is not an appropriate option to pursue and other forms of professional development should be considered. In contrast, many ‘yes’ answers would suggest that the conditions for teacher research are more favourable. Although we are very committed to teacher research, we also recognize that it will not be appropriate in all contexts.

As question 13 above implies, in making teacher research a feasible activity it is important to integrate it as far as possible into the professional practices teachers engage in routinely. We do not believe that teacher research can be accommodated by teachers without any extra commitment (temporal, intellectual, and emotional) on their part; however, teacher research becomes much more feasible when teachers are able to use skills, knowledge, and opportunities which already exist. For example, the observation of learners will be an activity teachers engage in regularly and the skills they have in this respect can be utilized to good effect in the context of teacher research. Interestingly, as Bartlett and Burton (2003) note, teacher researchers may undervalue the research skills they already possess; yet taking full advantage of these is an important way of making teacher research a more feasible activity.

It is also important to stress that, although it is unreasonable to expect teachers to achieve the scale, rigour, or sophistication that full-time researchers can, quality is an essential concern in teacher research. We understand the argument (reported by practitioners in Borg 2013) that teacher research – because it stimulates reflection on practice – is a beneficial activity irrespective of the results it produces. However, teacher research extends beyond reflection (Cochran-Smith and Lytle 1999); it seeks to generate understandings which inform practice, and it is thus important that those understandings are trustworthy. This is why quality matters in teacher research – it is not a watered-down, amateurish, or inferior form of inquiry; it has its own distinctive characteristics but shares, with research generally, a commitment to reaching sound conclusions through systematic processes of data collection, analysis, and interpretation, all of which are driven by a concern for specific issues, problems, puzzles, or questions.

What counts as quality in teacher research, though, has been an issue of debate in the literature. One position is to argue that the value of teacher research should be assessed using the same criteria that apply to research generally, though various perspectives also exist on what these generic criteria might be (e.g. Borg 2010a; Denscombe 2002; Pawson et al. 2003). For example, Eisenhart and Howe (1992) specify five quality standards that can be applied to all forms of research; one, for instance, is that the research methods should fit the research questions while another is that clear links should be made to existing knowledge. The latter is a good example of where generic criteria for research quality may not sit comfortably with teacher research; teachers typically do not have easy access to background literature and may lack the time and skills to process this material when they can access it; thus while we would always recommend that teacher researchers do some background reading, we would not expect this to be extensive or deeply analytical in the manner that it is written up. An alternative position is to argue that teacher research, as a distinctive form of inquiry, should be assessed against a unique set of criteria. Anderson and Herr (1999), for example, propose five kinds of validity (outcome, process, democratic, catalytic and dialogic) for evaluating practitioner research (see Oolbekkink-Marchand et al. 2014 for a recent analysis that applies these criteria to secondary school teachers’ practitioner research). Another example is McNiff and Whitehead (2009: 319) who assess the quality of action research using the criteria of

comprehensibility; truth in the sense of providing sufficient evidence to justify the claims being made; rightness in the sense of justifying the normative assumptions in the research; and authenticity in the sense that the researcher shows over time and in interaction that they are genuinely committed to what they claim to believe in.

Clearly, then, there is no ‘correct’ answer to what counts as quality in teacher research; it is important, though, that teacher researchers are explicit about which of the available quality criteria they are seeking to address.

One significant methodological advantage that teacher research has over conventional forms of inquiry stems from the extended and intimate contact with the classroom that teachers have. Teachers’ professional lives unfold and are enacted on a daily basis in the very settings in which teacher research happens. That affords teachers access to data which exceeds by far that available to any outside researcher visiting a classroom, even over an extended period of time. However, teachers’ dual role as researchers and research participants also creates challenges. For example, it can be difficult for teachers to achieve the distance from their experience that is required to examine it critically. Another challenge for teacher researchers relates to their relationships with students and colleagues. In conventional research, the roles of researchers and participants are clearly defined – the former have full responsibility for the study, the latter contribute by providing data, and interactions between the two parties are typically infrequent, short-term, and fairly formal. Teacher research involves a different set of relationships between the researchers and those individuals who form part of their local professional community. For example, teachers work with their students on a daily basis and will seek, in the interests of good pedagogy, to establish good relationships with them. These relationships cannot be dismissed because the teacher researcher feels they need to be ‘objective’. Similar questions arise in relation to the roles that students play in teacher research. They may function simply as a source of data; they may, though, assume a more participatory role (e.g. by contributing to the choice of issues to focus on or to how the data will be collected). Students may even be involved in collecting (rather than just providing) data – see, for example, the discussion of exploratory practice in Allwright and Hanks (2009). The same applies to the role of colleagues in teacher research; they may only be asked to provide data or can alternatively be an active part of a group that is collectively responsible for the design, conduct, and reporting of the study. Teacher researchers, then, need to adopt an explicit stance in relation to the members of the educational communities in which inquiry is taking place.

Supporting teacher research

Borg (2010b) claims that teacher research remains a minority activity in the field of language teaching, particularly if those teachers who do research in their classrooms as part of an academic degree are not counted. While it remains the case that teacher research is not a common activity in our field, there is increasing evidence worldwide of initiatives that are seeking to promote it in systematic ways (e.g. the Cambridge English-English UK Action Research Scheme or the Cambridge University Press Teacher Research Scheme). This realization that teacher research needs to be supported is important and represents a step forward from the rather simplistic belief that once teachers have been told about the benefits of teacher research they will then without hesitation proceed to engage fully in it. It is clear that teachers’ own backgrounds and the contexts in which language teachers work around the world are often not conducive to teacher research and indeed to professional development more generally; however, with carefully planned support structures it is possible for teacher research to become a productive element in teachers’ professional lives. This, then, raises impo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Series Editors’ Preface
• Notes on Contributors
• List of Abbreviations
• 1 Key Issues in Doing and Supporting Language Teacher Research Simon Borg and Hugo Santiago Sanchez
• 2 Towards New Understandings: Reflections on an Action Research Project with Japanese University Students Gerald Talandis Jr. and Michael Stout
• 3 Action Research as a Means of Stepping Out of the Teaching Comfort Zone Megan Yucel and Vicki Bos
• 4 Learning to Do Teacher Research Independently: Challenges and Solutions Jianmei Xie
• 5 Teacher Research in Video-Based Online Classrooms Paula Charbonneau-Gowdy
• 6 Border Crossings: Researching across Contexts for Teacher Professional Development Patsy Vinogradov
• 7 Participative Investigation: Narratives in Critical Research in the EFL Classroom Gerrard Mugford
• 8 Facilitating Teacher Research: Course Design, Implementation, and Evaluation Simon Borg
• 9 Supporting Teacher Research through a Practical In-Service Course Anisa Saleh Al-Maskari
• 10 Action Research as a Professional Development Strategy Servet Çelik and Kenan Dikilitaş
• 11 Practices and Principles of Pre-Service Action Research Maureen Rajuan
• 12 Teacher Research in the English Language Teacher Development Project Rachel Bowden
• 13 Encouraging Teacher Research through In-House Activities: The Approach of a Finnish University Language Centre Tuula Lehtonen, Kari Pitkänen, and Johanna Vaattovaara
• 14 Teacher Research: Looking Back and Moving Forward Hugo Santiago Sanchez and Simon Borg
• Further Reading
• Index