Researching classroom communications and relations in the light of social justice

Abstract

This article discusses participative action research performed by a network consisting of researchers and student-teachers of a University of Applied Sciences and teachers and pupils of four primary schools in the Netherlands. The research took place in the context of the research group 'Behaviour and Research in the Educational Praxis'. The primary schools focused on inclusive education in order to allow children with special educational needs to participate in mainstream schools. The central idea of the research project was to integrate the insiders' perspective of the teachers with the outsiders' perspective of the university researchers. Therefore, the research project combined process and content goals. The research lasted from September 2008 to June 2010, and consisted of five different stages: orientation, general and specific exploration, reconstruction and overall analysis. This article describes the goals and results of each of these stages. The article concludes with a final discussion on the main findings. An important result included a nuanced view of teachers on their power position in the classroom. Teachers facilitated children to increase their own responsibility for their behaviour and their interaction with their classmates and the teacher. This seemed to provide a basis for a more organic order in the classroom, which was less dependent on the interventions of the teacher.

Responsible action research for the pursuit of justice

“…Rather, we agree with Iris Young (2011) that a more just society is where people act to eliminate institutionalized domination and oppression. For action research, this would mean engaging in, among others, participatory activities (Howe 1995;Montesano, Montessori, and Ponte 2012;Smith 1996).…”