This guide introduces the skills and dispositions necessary to participate in educational action research. It targets teachers, administrators, college faculty, graduate students, state professional organizations, and state administrators. Chapter 1, "Understanding Action Research as a Tool for Professional Growth and Organizational Development,"…

This paper describes the guided inquiry process by which graduate students in the Master of Science in Education Program at Northwestern University produce a formal "master's project." This project is a piece of individual or group research completed by students in the teacher preparation program. The preparation to do the inquiry runs…

A survey of 11 adult literacy practitioner research networks in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada indicated the following: primary purposes were professional development and outlet for practitioner voice; predominant methods were action and participatory research; 10 had government funding; and challenges included lack of…

Reviews five books of research on teaching, including teaching with a word processor, peer response groups, mastery teaching, and teaching adolescents. (RS)

Explores the development of teacher research on gender. Suggests that teacher research has proved important for feminist teachers by affording them the opportunity to explore the social as well as the educational context of schooling and by providing them with the means to challenge inequalities from inside the profession. (KO)

Reviews a book, "Teachers' Voices for School Change" by Andrew Gitlin, on educative research and teacher voice, examining the educative research process which grounds reflection in the life histories of teacher researchers, presenting four case studies on educative research, and reflecting on the educative research process itself.…

Considers the role of teacher-researchers, who try to analyze their own teaching and their students' learning for the purpose of benefiting both. Narrates the development of a teacher-researcher's projects and the program of reading informing the projects. Presents a picture of the teacher-researcher movement at a crucial moment in its emergence.…

The mythical purity of research and scientific method leads to limited practice. Teacher researchers should question the universality of findings and recognize their position as researchers and as classed, raced, and gendered subjects, moving the focus away from policymakers and toward a wider constituency. (SK)

Shares the author's systematic observations and reflections on students' learning in her first-grade classroom as a means of opening a conversation about what counts as teacher research. (SR)

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…

This paper discusses some of the methodological and ethical issues that one educational researcher encountered throughout his work, focusing on the importance of understanding teachers' thinking from their perspective (an insider looking out rather than an outsider looking in). It highlights a collaborative research relationship that the…

Cites Edward Lee Thorndike's influence on the sizable chasm between educational research and practice. Notes recent progress in improving research use (action research, teacher researchers) but suggests there is still far to go. (SK)

Summarizes issues raised by E. D. Wong (1995) on the teacher as researcher that argued the presence of conflict of purpose and conduct. Argues that while conflict of purpose or conduct may not exist, tension does exist in terms of research time and tasks. Further argues that the conflict-versus-compatibility issue can be transcended. (GR)

Asserts that teacher research can provide a missing dimension to the knowledge base for teaching. Discusses critical issues of institutionalization and methodological rigor that make it difficult for teachers to conduct research studies and for the university community to acknowledge the value of teacher research. (FMW)

Describes research in which the author studied his own teaching over a two-year period and, based on the research, developed a model for structuring drama to support reflection and learning. (SR)