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Article
Publication date: 6 June 2014

Lisa Andries D'Souza

The purpose of this paper is to examine the benefits of an unintended mentoring relationship between researchers and beginning teachers during a longitudinal, qualitative study…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the benefits of an unintended mentoring relationship between researchers and beginning teachers during a longitudinal, qualitative study. The study highlights the opportunity for teacher preparation to serve as a bridge to close the gap in learning between the relatively theoretical world of teacher preparation and practical world of classroom teaching.

Design/methodology/approach

The study analyzed extensive qualitative data relating to two beginning teachers over a five-year period. As a theoretical framework this study drew from Lave and Wenger's (1991) theories of legitimate peripheral participation and communities of practice. In addition, significant parallels were drawn to applications of figured worlds (Holland et al., 1998) which addressed the manner in which teachers were able to “figure themselves” into teaching contexts.

Findings

This study provides support for developing communities of practice to bridge the gap of support between teacher preparation and the teaching profession. The engagement and design of the support remains crucial as the study recommends creating a support network between two individuals with an established, trusting relationship and comparable theoretical groundings. Finally, the relationship must be built around non-evaluative, questioning strategies which encourage teacher inquiry.

Originality/value

Although the long-term relationship between university researcher and participant remains somewhat rare, it is important to highlight the mentoring potential – and associated benefits – of such relationships. The established trust and bridge of ideas between a researcher and a participant completing preparation at the same university are key factors in successful support. This study is relevant for teacher preparation programs and professional development organizations as they work to more effectively support beginning teachers’ transition into the profession.

Details

International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, vol. 3 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2046-6854

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 July 2019

Célia Lemaire and Pauline Paquin

Teacher-researchers carry out two singular, demanding and time-consuming, activities: research and teaching. Some, convinced of the cross-fertilization of these two activities…

Abstract

Purpose

Teacher-researchers carry out two singular, demanding and time-consuming, activities: research and teaching. Some, convinced of the cross-fertilization of these two activities, try to introduce elements of their research into their courses. This intention becomes a major challenge for interpretive and critical teacher-researchers in accounting who cannot rely on textbooks, mostly oriented for the mainstream. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how those teacher-researchers proceed to infuse their research into their courses.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is an exploratory qualitative study based on interviews.

Findings

The results show three typical profiles that correspond to three ways of infusing research into courses, and how these profiles can evolve and combine.

Originality/value

The identification of teacher-researcher profiles allows categorization of how they infuse their research into their teaching. By listing the constraints imposed on teacher-researchers intending to infuse research, proposals for ways to overcome the identified constraints that hinder the cross-fertilization of research and teaching are suggested. The paper also reexamines the status of teachers-researchers in accounting who address a critical approach in their teaching.

Details

Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, vol. 16 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1176-6093

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 17 December 2015

This chapter analyzes our practice as researchers engaged in intimate scholarship using the Framework of Analysis (Pinnegar & Hamilton, 2009) as an analytic tool to scrutinize the…

Abstract

This chapter analyzes our practice as researchers engaged in intimate scholarship using the Framework of Analysis (Pinnegar & Hamilton, 2009) as an analytic tool to scrutinize the trustworthiness of our research practice and to develop a deeper understanding of how S-STEP research establishes itself as trustworthy and rigorous scholarship. With the recognition of S-STEP research and other forms of intimate scholarship as genres of teacher education research (Borko, Liston, & Whitcomb, 2007), scholars engaged and other forms of intimate scholarship can turn to a more rigorous inquiry into and critique of our work in order to consider how we might improve our practice as researchers and support and strengthen the position and future of this research. For these reasons, we take up a critique of a particular S-STEP research study using the Framework for Analysis in order to explore both whether the work studied can be judged trustworthy and what such examination reveals about the process of establishing the trustworthiness of studies utilizing intimate scholarship methodologies.

Details

Knowing, Becoming, Doing as Teacher Educators: Identity, Intimate Scholarship, Inquiry
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-140-4

Article
Publication date: 13 November 2017

Anne Swenson Ticknor and Paige Averett

The purpose of this paper is to provide an emic view of how one researcher negotiated complex relationships in teacher education research and learned to employ the principles of…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide an emic view of how one researcher negotiated complex relationships in teacher education research and learned to employ the principles of the relational cultural theory (RCT) to create a research design aimed at building and sustaining relationships with participants.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors offer illustrative qualitative data examples from teacher education research to highlight complexities in research relationships, essential elements of the RCT, and the affordances RCT can offer qualitative researchers invested in similar work.

Findings

By engaging pre-service teachers and ourselves as mutually engaged in this process, the authors put into practice a sense of community and relationship building the authors hope pre-service teachers will practice with their future students.

Research limitations/implications

This paper provides a qualitative research design employing tenets of the RCT which centers relationships as critical to the research process. The authors offer affordances and limitations to using the RCT in research.

Practical implications

Several affordances are offered to researchers interested in engaging in similar work.

Originality/value

This paper offers an original perspective of how one researcher in teacher education negotiated complex relationships and learned to employ the principles of the RCT within these to build a research design aimed at widening research and practice in teacher education through productive and lasting relationships.

Details

Qualitative Research Journal, vol. 17 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1443-9883

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 June 2019

Alessa Hillbrink and Regina Jucks

Developing professional identities as both researchers and teachers is core to doctoral students’ growth. Given the primacy of research for the university career, this study aimed…

Abstract

Purpose

Developing professional identities as both researchers and teachers is core to doctoral students’ growth. Given the primacy of research for the university career, this study aimed at answering the following questions: how much do doctoral students identify with the teacher compared to the researcher role? Can the teacher role identity be purposely activated?

Design/methodology/approach

In an experimental study with 167 psychology PhD students, trait role identification was measured using a questionnaire. Afterward, participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions differing in the picture material (research vs teaching pictures vs a mixture of both) provided for creating a collage reflecting their roles. Subsequently, answers to open questions were coded and quantified as indicators of state role identity.

Findings

As a trait, doctoral students identified more strongly with their researcher role than with their teacher role. Teacher role identity as a state was successfully activated when doctoral students engaged with teaching pictures compared to the other conditions.

Practical implications

As the researcher role seems to be the default setting for PhD students, activation of the teacher role has the potential to benefit work satisfaction of PhD students and the quality of their teaching.

Originality/value

Taking both long- and short-term identification processes in PhD students into account is a promising new approach. Besides, quantitative data are added to the field of qualitative insights on PhD students’ professional roles.

Details

Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, vol. 10 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2398-4686

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 September 2019

Maria Andrée and Inger Eriksson

The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon demands of and possibilities for establishing a space for conducting and supporting high-quality research in schools. In the article…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon demands of and possibilities for establishing a space for conducting and supporting high-quality research in schools. In the article the authors reflect upon experiences in establishing a research environment for teachers called Stockholm Teaching & Learning Studies (STLS). The article focusses some of the tensions that have been emerging in attempting to build an infrastructure for teacher-driven research and discusses the transformative potential of those tensions.

Design/methodology/approach

The article draws on the authors’ experiences in establishing STLS as a research environment for teachers by drawing on a framework of cultural-historical activity theory. The article applies the notions of contradictions and tensions as driving forces for development of activity.

Findings

The specific tensions that have been negotiated in the establishment of STLS are tensions between developing public knowledge vs local knowledge, tensions in knowledge cultures between oral and text-based ways of sharing knowledge, tensions in research interests and tensions in ownership. These tensions relate to knowledge production as embedded in institutional life and constrained by institutional boundaries in contemporary society.

Originality/value

Today, there is a growing amount of collaborative research that connects elementary and secondary teachers in research projects with university-based researchers. However, this does not guarantee projects that will address everyday problems of teachers or that teachers will be acknowledged as researchers in the end.

Details

International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, vol. 9 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2046-8253

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 18 February 2011

Stefinee Pinnegar and Mary Lynn Hamilton

Purpose – This chapter explores the complexity and tensions inherent in the question of how story becomes research with particular attention to the use of narrative research in…

Abstract

Purpose – This chapter explores the complexity and tensions inherent in the question of how story becomes research with particular attention to the use of narrative research in studying teacher education.

Approach – To do this, we begin each section with a narrative fragment from earlier published research in which we collaborated (Hamilton, 1995). Then, we use narrative research analysis tools to explore the meaning of each fragment, lay that understanding alongside research accounts and wonderings about research in and by teacher educators, and consider the fragment in terms of specific understandings of narrative inquiry as research methodology for studying teacher education.

Findings – This chapter examines when story moves to research while probing the tensions between knowledge and living as teachers, teacher educators, and teacher educator researchers. Using the first fragment, we explore fulfilling roles as a teacher educator by using a narrative analysis tool that teases apart the author's role of narrator, actor, and character. In the second fragment, we consider the contexts that influence a teacher educator researcher by examining the fragment to determine the levels of narrative. In the third fragment, we utilize the tools of plotlines and tensions to unpack the competing plotlines of epistemology (modernist vs. narrative) ending with an examination of the importance of ontology in narrative work. In our fourth fragment, we unpack nine approaches to narrative by examining the essential role of story for each element of the research process.

Research implications – As teacher educator researchers, we always stand in the midst – in the midst of the story where we may be simultaneously narrator, character, and actor, in the midst of living the research we are most interested in studying. Within a single moment, we can act as teacher, teacher educator, and teacher educator researcher when our research focuses on our own practice. Our experience as we live it represents the tension between arrival and arriving.

Value – The value of this chapter is the way in which it demonstrates narrative analysis and distinguishes among various approaches to narrative research.

Article
Publication date: 13 July 2015

Lenita Hietanen

This study focuses on the implementation of entrepreneurship education in non-business education at the basic education level and in class-teacher education in Finland. The…

1338

Abstract

Purpose

This study focuses on the implementation of entrepreneurship education in non-business education at the basic education level and in class-teacher education in Finland. The subject to learn was music, which did not include any entrepreneurial content. Accordingly, this study looks closely at the way learners behave when studying music. The purpose of this paper is to see whether entrepreneurial behaviour is appropriate in non-business education.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used the action research approach; in particular, it used the special teacher-as-researcher method. The analysis was based on content analysis.

Findings

In this study, the teacher-researcher looked at entrepreneurial learning as experimenting with alternative learning methods and different learning contents. To ensure that every learner received the support they needed in their self-chosen tasks, peer learning was encouraged. Learners got the support they needed both from each other and from the teacher-researcher.

Practical implications

Although this study was only carried once during some music lessons in one particular comprehensive school and once in one class-teacher education in Finland, the findings may prompt teachers in other subjects and other countries to add entrepreneurial activities to their learning environments.

Originality/value

There is a lack of research into entrepreneurship education practices at lower educational levels and where education is not business-oriented. Using the entrepreneurial approach in general education raises another question: is the approach suitable for every learner? Neither of these facets has been studied in depth.

Details

Education + Training, vol. 57 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0040-0912

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 January 2017

Patrik Johansson and Anja Thorsten

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and discuss experiences, in terms of challenges and opportunities, of teacher-researchers who engage in research on the learning study…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and discuss experiences, in terms of challenges and opportunities, of teacher-researchers who engage in research on the learning study approach. The following two questions will be addressed: how can the teaching experience influence, and become an asset, in the research process and what challenges do teachers face when they enter the research practice?

Design/methodology/approach

Each question will be explored through some empirically grounded themes. The analysis is based on experiences from participation in a PhD program, where learning study was used as a method and variation theory was the main theoretical framework. One learning study was focusing on creative writing in primary school and the other was focusing on historical primary source analysis in upper secondary school.

Findings

The first question is addressed through the following themes: choosing and identifying research problems; planning and conducting research lessons; analyzing research lessons and students’ learning; and process of self-reflection, and the second question through: teaching as an object of research; to use and develop theories; and communication and review in research. The findings indicate that learning study is a practice-based research approach where teaching experience and academic skills are intertwined in many ways. Both approaches bring opportunities as well as challenges.

Originality/value

The paper is expected to contribute insights and knowledge about the advantages, as well as hindrances to overcome, for teacher-researchers who use learning study as a research method. The results can also be related to the performing of action research in teachers’ classroom practice.

Details

International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, vol. 6 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2046-8253

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 May 2017

Audrey B. Wood

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on some of the professional and practical challenges which emerged during the process of carrying out a small-scale action research project…

1694

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on some of the professional and practical challenges which emerged during the process of carrying out a small-scale action research project into different approaches to teaching English Literature in a Year-9 secondary classroom, completed in part-fulfilment of the requirements for a higher degree.

Design/methodology/approach

The author narrates an account of some of the difficulties faced by one emergent researcher whilst carrying out educational research in a comprehensive school in England.

Findings

The author suggests that even within a research-supportive environment where “research” is encouraged or expected, there is often limited effort from management to articulate the practicalities or evaluate its effectiveness. Despite this, the author emphasises the benefits to teachers and students of undertaking small-scale action research projects into issues of contemporary professional concern in the classroom. The author argues for the involvement of school administrators and universities in supporting teacher-researchers.

Originality/value

The value of this research lies in acknowledging some of the challenges that emergent researchers might face in conducting research in the context of the classroom, which might enable other teacher-researchers to anticipate and avoid similar problems in their own research, and circumvent criticism from those who believe that educational research should not be carried out by teachers.

Details

English Teaching: Practice & Critique, vol. 16 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1175-8708

Keywords

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