In this article I reflect on my experiences facilitating teachers as researchers and reflective practitioners and the importance of enhancing the dynamic and complementary relationship between theory, research, practice and reflection at every step of action research. Given the complexity of teachers' participation in action research, I drew on a…

Finnish education has received worldwide attention due to the country's performances in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Research investigating Finland's positive outcomes in the assessment has highlighted not only the strength of teachers, but also the rigour of Finnish teacher education. Finnish student teachers must…

The reinvention of the university as a research-focused institution has transformed the way in which research is defined in practice. It is now widely explained in terms of a narrow set of performative expectations. This paper draws on historical literature to trace the hollowing out of research from a broad, though often sceptical, conception…

With a focus on the US, I briefly review the literature to examine current trends, and outline a typology of what is meant by educational research for teaching by, with and for teachers, followed by a discussion of why it is important for educators to engage in and commit to such research. The key question in this article is what kinds of research…

This paper contributes an autoethnographic account of how Paulo Freire's work shapes understandings of education, social change and the possibilities and practices of social research. Drawing on connections between anthropology and education (Schultz, 2014) that underpin "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" (McKenna, 2013), I explore spaces and…

This paper analyses the effects of research assessment on the overall research practices of academics. Case study research was conducted in departments from two contrasting disciplines -- the natural sciences and the humanities -- in one research intensive Danish university. The case studies examined academics' and administrators' experiences of a…

University faculty have the talent, creativity, and training to tackle the serious challenges confronting our education system today, but the incentive structure in universities is often at odds with real-world contributions. What tensions are experienced by faculty who may be interested in partnership-oriented, engaged scholarship? How can these…

Community engagement as a public mission of higher education is widely accepted in South Africa. This is articulated in White Paper 3 on the transformation of higher education and in institutional policies that promote different forms of community engagement. However, compared to the traditional roles of teaching and research, community engagement…

Young children's engagement in Education for Sustainability has focussed predominantly on their participation in environment-based initiatives or practices. Reasons for this include a notion that wider dimensions of sustainability, including social, political and economic areas of concern can be too complex and overwhelming for young children.…

This paper examines the unbundling of research in the context of the Teachers' Research Exchange (T-REX) platform, the national flagship Internet platform in Ireland for teachers to access, use and engage in research. This paper draws on two theoretical frameworks: Laurillard's conversational framework and Salmon's five-stage model. The first…

In this paper, I present my experiences as an emerging classroom-based researcher. Using personal narratives, I examine the tensions that emerge from the emotional work often required to conduct educational research. This autoethnographic approach explores the complexity of student-teacher interactions using Swanson's middle-range theory of…

Physical distancing, isolation and an absence of face-to-face meetings with participants and respondents, as ramifications of the current COVID-19 pandemic, have an adverse effect on research projects, research processes and data generation. Furthermore, researchers' professional development and career prospects are seriously hampered, most…

With teacher walkouts and other forms of protest on the rise, EdD programs are beginning to frame practitioner-scholars' work as activism. The purpose of this article is to explore and complicate that trend by interpreting data from oral history interviews with three long-term teacher researchers, alongside shifting historical scholarship on civil…

An increase in research productivity is of vital importance in the development of countries worldwide. However, when research outputs are measured, many higher education faculties neither meet the expectations regarding quality nor quantity despite the increasing drive towards publications. This paper examines how academic managers can reform a…

Teacher agency is often depicted in terms of autonomy, empowerment, and participation. This article examines how those democratic visions of teacher agency are (re)constructed during the post-World War Two period when social scientists were eager to find organized procedural reasons. To explain this, I historicize the shifted teachers' role from a…