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…

Discusses the meaning of being a teacher-researcher, emphasizing the need to involve teachers in research to link theory and practice and noting how participant observation helps them inquire into practice. Practitioner-researcher examples from teachers involved in a graduate research course are presented. The cases support and explicate…

Presents a rationale for change in adult education research. Suggests that graduate adult education programs teach relevant research methods based on practitioner problems and encourage action and participatory methods in theses and dissertations. (SK)

Examines unexpected challenges based on differing understandings and values about what counts as research in teacher-researcher collaboration. Focuses on two challenges: defining and legitimating nonquantitative research; and intermingling roles and responsibilities of "researcher" and "teacher." Shows how key material…

Describes project results from middle school teachers' action research. Recounts the teachers' connections as a research team, directions of research process in the first year, reflections on what was learned about students and teachers, actions carried out in light of the research, and suggestions for readers interested in conducting action…

Discusses the split between theory and practice in education and the extent to which teachers engaging in research into their own practice can bridge the gap and help improve schools and research. The paper presents two case studies of successful collaborative, school-based action research and offers a critical reflection of learning from the case…

Describes the Portfolio Research Project, a three-year research project ultimately involving 20 teachers of grades 6-12 from a variety of schools, in which teachers acted as primary researchers, developing their own research projects to explore the use of portfolios to assess literature learning. Describes what participants researched, how…

Describes the use of case-study groups as a structure for active observation of children at the West Side Montessori School in New York City, including daily observation note-taking, bi-weekly meeting of a five-member team, and progress reports on individual children. Discusses the positive impact of the case-study groups on their observation…

Addresses what phonemic awareness is and asks if there are different levels of phonemic awareness. Considers activities that are best for promoting phonemic awareness and questions when a child can be assessed as phonemically aware. Discusses what lies beyond phonemic awareness for emergent readers. Describes the author's journey as a graduate…

Discusses the limitations of experimental studies of learning and the emergence of alternative paradigms such as constructivism. Examines the growth of teacher research and its historical influences, including Montessori, Dewey's Progressive Movement, and Lucy Sprague Mitchell. Discusses current trends in teacher research, asserting that it is…

Highlights a synergistic collaborative research effort between a public school and a university, discussing the process of collaboration throughout the study and providing perspectives on the learning and collaboration experiences from university faculty, classroom teachers, and pre-service teachers. This collaboration resulted in translation of…

Demonstrates how participatory action research linked teachers directly to the experimental design of a longitudinal study of a seventh grade drug prevention curriculum, testing the effectiveness of various degrees of cultural sensitivity in the curriculum. Pretest-post-test surveys highlighted the importance of partnerships, faculty development,…

Examined the effectiveness of collaborative action research teaming as a professional development mechanism to address the demands of contemporary classrooms through formalized sharing between groups of inservice and preservice teachers. Data from observations, interviews, and student artifacts indicated that effective teaming depended…

Investigated the collaborative-research process between an elementary physical educator and a university researcher, describing what the process meant to each during their long-term collaboration. Data from participant observation with an autobiographical component indicated that there were two major themes: shared privilege and shared…

Throughout its history, adult literacy education has been defined, researched, and controlled by external entities. Action research is now enabling literacy practitioners and learners to gain a voice through production of their own knowledge. The applicability, benefits, and inherent risks of practitioner action research are discussed. Contains 53…