‘Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Impact’: A Methodological Assessment of Teacher Research Sponsored by the Teacher Training Agency

Foster, Peter

doi:10.1111/1467-8527.00126

Cited by 49 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 9 publications

(5 reference statements)

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“…Anonymous student evaluations at the end of the course consistently acknowledge the learning value of the assignments at key points in progress. We are aware that the robustness of the research undertaken by students could be improved and continue to work at this year-on-year, for example using Foster's (1999) critique of teacher action research to emphasise the requirements of rigour and caution. We are perhaps misleading students by encouraging and simultaneously disappointing their expectations of useful practical outcomes from their projects -they begin to realise that research cannot provide quick answers to complex problems, but that more in-depth knowledge about a problem can be enriching and empowering, even if it produces no conclusive results.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A recent study by Vanderlinde and Braak (2010) in Flanders reports the frustration of researchers at their lack of impact on the teaching profession. On the other hand, action research and other forms of practitioner research developed precisely to focus on those immediate practical concerns are challenged by established researchers for their lack of rigour and concern about their hidden agendas (Foster 1999;Gorard 2002).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bridging the teacher/researcher divide: Master’s-level work in initial teacher education

Gray

2012

European Journal of Teacher Education

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There is much current debate about the purpose and usefulness of educational research and the perceived communication gap between teaching professionals and academic researchers. UK government intervention into initial teacher education has in recent decades contributed to this divide by favouring school-based training. The most common route into teaching in England remains, however, the Postgraduate Certificate in Education, provided by higher education institutions and therefore required to comply with the higher education qualifications framework. The majority of initial teacher education in England therefore lies at the cusp of these two worlds, pulled in apparently opposing directions. The 'teacher-as-researcher' movement is widely seen as a bridge spanning these tensions, though there is discussion about the quality of practitioner research as well as about the appropriateness of a rigorous academic approach for investigating practice. This article offers examples of the use of small-scale research projects as a valid means of 'discovery learning' in pre-service teacher education. It argues that induction into research techniques as a means of exploring practical challenges can lead to knowledge production and ownership.Introduction. Educational research: the practitioner/researcher gap and Master's-level initial teacher education Teacher educators throughout the world consistently strive to find effective ways of influencing teacher behaviour. A major tool in this is the use of published research findings, resulting in an ongoing debate over the nature, purpose and usefulness of educational research itself. On the one hand, research conducted by professional researchers appears to have only a minor influence on educational practice due to its perceived irrelevance to the immediate practical concerns of teachers (Foster 1999, 380). A recent study by Vanderlinde and Braak (2010) in Flanders reports the frustration of researchers at their lack of impact on the teaching profession. On the other hand, action research and other forms of practitioner research developed precisely to focus on those immediate practical concerns are challenged by established researchers for their lack of rigour and concern about their hidden agendas (Foster 1999;Gorard 2002).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridging the teacher/researcher divide: Master’s-level work in initial teacher education

Gray

2012

European Journal of Teacher Education

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“…And if they were not formal research projects, what were they? As we indicated above, these are key questions within the literature on action research with commentators taking sharply different perspectives (for an example of the strongly critical evaluation of teacher research, see Foster, 1999). However, addressing such questions, was for us, not merely a matter of academic interest; it was an essential precursor for establishing the criteria for our evaluation.…”

Section: Links To School Lea and National Prioritiesmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…(Corey, 1953, p. 23) All of the projects we examined during our evaluation exhibited these common features described in the literature. At the same time, the literature also alerted us to the long running conflicts and tensions within action research: differences of opinion about the role of theory (Lewin, 1948;Elliott, 1978Elliott, , 1980Stenhouse, 1979Stenhouse, , 1985 and the extent to which projects should build on what is known; tensions about whether they can and should contribute to the public stock of knowledge as well as the improvement of practice; differences of opinion about generalization, how it can be achieved and whether or not it is important (Corey, 1953;Elliott, 1980;Wallace, 1987); tensions about quality and validity and how they might be established and how one might distinguish 'between rigorous and sloppy work' (Wallace, 1987, p. 112); and finally, and most fundamentally of all, controversy about whether or not action research is indeed research at all (Hodgkinson, 1957;Foster, 1999;Hammersley, 2004). Again, many of the projects we examined reflected these tensions and differences of opinion and we comment on them in more detail below.…”

Section: Bprs As a Form Of Action Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Best practice research scholarships: An evaluation

Furlong

Salisbury

2005

Research Papers in Education

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The Best Practice Research Scholarship programme (BPRS) was one of a series of initiatives designed by the English Department for Educational Studies (DfES) between 2000 and 2003, to support teachers' continuing professional development. Each year, around 1,000 Scholarships of up to £3,000 each, were awarded to serving classroom teachers to engage in supported, school-focused research. This paper reports an evaluation of the national scheme during its last year. Documentation from a stratified random sample of 100 proposals and reports were examined and case studies undertaken in a sub-sample of 20 schools. The paper describes the major features of the scheme including topics studied, research methods employed, and the occupational position of teachers involved. In order to establish a basis for an evaluation of the scheme, the paper explores the nature of the projects and the extent to which they could be characterised as research. It is argued that for most teachers, the primary purpose of the projects was not to contribute to the public stock of knowledge but to improve practice within their own schools. The criteria for evaluating projects, it is argued, should therefore include their impact on teachers' own professional development, on their teaching practice, on pupils, on parents, and on their colleagues. Evidence is presented to suggest that projects did indeed appear to have considerable impact on all of these factors though only in a minority of cases was the evidence considered to be robust. The paper goes on to raise questions about the problematic nature of quality in teachers' research and the associated difficulties with 'dissemination'. The paper concludes by exploring the different factors that might affect the success of teachers' research including mentoring, finance and their occupational position within their school.

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“…Was there a danger that this new tidal wave of research would suffer the fate of earlier iterations -becoming undermined through an evident lack of rigour and care (Foster, 1999)? Was there also an issue in terms of the ethics of the school research environment?…”

Section: Introduction: the Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leaders’ views on the values of school-based research: contemporary themes and issues

Bryan

Burstow

2016

Professional Development in Education

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‘Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Impact’: A Methodological Assessment of Teacher Research Sponsored by the Teacher Training Agency

Cited by 49 publications

References 9 publications

Bridging the teacher/researcher divide: Master’s-level work in initial teacher education

Bridging the teacher/researcher divide: Master’s-level work in initial teacher education

Best practice research scholarships: An evaluation

Leaders’ views on the values of school-based research: contemporary themes and issues

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