Presents observations concerning teachers as researchers organized around such issues as the roots of teacher research, the new interest in the topic, how teacher researchers are viewed by researchers, how they conduct research, what conditions support such research, and the value of such research. (RS)

Increasingly, researchers in the social sciences are joining education scholars and studying basic issues in learning, including how children can be actively engaged in learning, effects of educational setting, and assessment of learning. The interest is prompted by availability of funding for applied research and by broader intellectual trends.…

Describes briefly four qualitative research projects and examines four sets of questions which illustrate ethical dilemmas embedded in qualitative research of the type described: the conduct of qualitative inquiry in the classroom, project implementation, the effect of the researcher's presence in the field, and understanding questions of pedagogy…

Makes the case for teacher research in the academy. Hopes that English department faculty will become willing and active coconstructors of connections between the work of sociolinguists and their own worlds. Suggests that teaching at any level is fundamentally about worlds and stories in contact--worlds which are made and remade through language.…

Presents an analysis of teacher research studies that illustrates the variety of choices teachers make in exploring questions within their own classrooms. Concludes with a representation of an array of possibilities from which teacher researchers might choose or use to guide them as they select or invent their own methodological solutions within…

Considers the various ways that the "teacher research movement" is currently being conceptualized. Illustrates the useful ways that three successful teacher research groups operate, as well as some of the problems faced by these groups. Argues for the continuing emergence and influence of teacher research groups. (HB)

In this book, two teachers share their experiences as researchers to confront and address the current disagreements about whether empirical research or narrative recounting is a better research model. In the book they seek to transcend these disagreements by endorsing an integrative approach that covers all aspects of practitioner inquiry, joining…

Describes teacher inquiry in the University of Georgia's National Reading Research Center's School Research Consortium (SRC). Discusses reasons to formalize the teaching and reflecting process by conducting research, how SRC members are becoming researchers, and what impact SRC research is having. (SR)

This paper explains how teachers can set up good research problems to study in their classrooms. The purpose of the research is to provide teachers with a tool for reflection, change, learning, and renewal in student-centered classrooms. Teacher-researchers learn to ask critical questions, collect data, document findings, and share results with…

Reacts to Frederick Burton's response (same issue) to her article on teachers as researchers. Emphasizes the value of collaborative research projects, the need for teacher researchers not to imitate the work of traditional researchers, and the use of local forums to give teacher researchers recognition. (RS)

Finds the metaphor of reading the classroom as "text" is (1) easy in that all it takes is an orientation that asks what the classroom has to teach; and (2) difficult in that what it has to teach is complex, multi-layered, and often conflictive. Provides a heuristic to guide teachers in viewing and understanding the classroom as text. (NH)

Addresses problems and possibilities in development of practitioner research stemming from a semester-long master's level research course. Presents course context; outlines the four classroom studies that examined journal writing; explores commonalities among studies; shares conversations among researchers on issues of systematic inquiry,…

Answers questions that teachers who want to conduct research in their writing classes might have. (FL)

Describes the "Book Club Plus Inquiry Group," a group of classroom teachers and university teacher educators in Michigan involved in practitioner research. Offers perspectives from the group on the question of what counts as teacher research. Concludes with a model of their conception. (SR)

This book describes the essential components of any teacher-researcher group. Part I describes an experience, a process, that aids teacher-researchers in completing a study. Part II reexamines the issues and questions surrounding teacher research, as they have both shifted and steadied over the years. Part III consists of research articles written…