The teacher-researcher has assumed many roles ranging from research assistant through collaborator to research director. The benefits of teacher research include the political (it is a vehicle for the empowerment of teachers), the practical (teachers are in the best position to verify which methods work best), and professional growth (they are…

Examines the experience of participants in the 25 British Columbia teacher research groups involved in a primary education restructuring initiative. Characterizes teacher research as a striving for authenticity involving participants in five different struggles: engaging in professional discourse; providing mutual support, stability, and…

We examined the complexities of developing and implementing school curricula that reflect the goals for equality for students outlined in the Canadian Multiculturalism Act. Stories of teaching and learning experiences were presented to teacher-researchers as a means of generating discussion about differences in perspective pertaining to the…

British Columbia's systemwide educational reform efforts enable teachers to engage in classroom-based research while building a learner-focused curriculum. This article describes the province's teacher research efforts, underlining important implications for educational policy. Teacher research permitted teachers to honor schools' educative…

The qualitative educational research literature is increasingly advocating the use of literary/artistic techniques. This article describes and evaluates educational action researches by three art teachers, and questions why they have not capitalised methodologically on their artistic expertise. Analysis of commonalities in practitioner-based…

This bilingual exploration of program-based research discusses research in the everyday life of literacy programs and is also an account of one practitioner's personal experience. The first part explains the concept of program-based research. The second part reports on the relative lack of research in this area and gives a brief analysis of the…

A Canadian secondary school teacher relates how reflecting on her teaching decisions through action research enabled her to cope with teaching a course in an unfamiliar subject area. (IAH)

Examined the consequences for 5 teachers of joining a school/university partnership to inquire into the routines of 13 of their colleagues in the same district. Sought to determine whether studying peers helped teachers conduct inquiries into their own practice and how the teacher-researchers used the findings from the original study to alter…

School-based outdoor and experiential programs face an increasing demand from outside interests for research-based accountability. This paper suggests that both research and practice are strengthened by researcher-practitioner partnerships and by practitioners conducting their own research. Three modest qualitative research designs are explored as…

In the Network of Performance Schools, 75 British Columbia schools conduct action research on school improvement. Among their findings: a sense of identity around a common goal was key to successful networking, assessment information generated from classroom work provided meaningful data and supported school learning communities, and network…

A Cree teacher-researcher in Alberta enrolled in a graduate education program in hopes of gaining insight into the low achievement of students in reserve schools. Courses taught from an Indigenous perspective and her own research with reservation students led her to the notion of inherent wisdom, expressed in the metaphor of a tree whose roots…

Recognizing that learning to teach cannot be separated from learning to inquire, I argue that teachers have specific relational and ethical responsibilities to their students, particularly in the context of a diverse society. Using my research experiences with Aboriginal people as examples, I propose an ethical framework based upon four underlying…

Describes how one high school implemented schoolwide action research teams as a comprehensive change management strategy to develop teacher leaders, teachers as change agents, and a collaborative reflective culture. The three-year case study showed that work on action research teams did not come naturally or easily, but teachers improved over time…

Describes one teacher's first attempt to understand the role of students' self-evaluations of their process and products in a science unit centered upon open-ended projects. Describes the social structure in student group self-evaluation, and explains the important role students' self-evaluations can play as part of an open-ended project learning…

In the fall of 2003, the Eastern Townships School Board grades 5 & 6 teachers were faced with implementing a one-to-one laptop initiative, a new provincial curriculum, a balanced literacy framework and a language initiative whereby the students would receive more of their instruction time in a second language. To guard against Initiative…