Clarke, Anthony and Erickson, Gaalen (Editors). (2003).
Teacher Inquiry: Living the Research in Everyday Practice.
New York: RoutledgeFalmer.
Pp. xvi +247
$ 139.95 ISBN 0-415-29795-8
Reviewed by Alcione N Ostorga
University of Texas Pan American
December 21, 2004
Currently, there are two general views of teaching as a
profession. In one view, teachers are seen as technicians, or
experts in how to apply prescribed methodologies in the
classroom. This perspective considers teachers as consumers of
the professional knowledge of teaching and learning. In this
perspective, teachers do not think about the right approaches but
follow the guidelines and curriculum prescribed by the school
administrators. In the second view, teachers are considered
professionals who are not only knowledgeable of learning theories
and methods of instruction, but also active constructors of
knowledge. They are critical thinkers and therefore capable of
engaging in research about practices. The book Teacher
Inquiry is an example of the latter view. The volume
represents a collaborative effort among school teachers, teacher
educators and program administrators comprising a collection of
action research to examine and improve practice.
Action research conducted by teachers is a growing practice
that is gaining acceptance among educators and administrators as
seen by rise in efforts to promote its use. Benefits of engaging
teachers in action research include the promotion of reflectivity
and development of the critical stance necessary of effective
teachers. Furthermore, teachers who engage in action research
not only promote their own development and the development of
their practice, they also contribute to the evolution of their
field.
Nevertheless, there are still some who view this practice
suspiciously. Critics of teacher research question the
teachers’ preparation to engage in such endeavors. They may
see action research as a non-scientific process lacking the
necessary rigor of systematic methods of inquiry. Yet, a close
analysis of action research conducted by teachers reveals that
high quality action research can be considered scientific if it
meets the strict standards of good research practices. In a
recent editorial of the Journal of Teacher education,
Cochran-Smith cites a National Research Council report (NRC 2001,
as cited by Cochran-Smith, 2002) as an authority in defining what
constitutes scientific research in education. The report
states:
To be scientific, the design must allow direct, empirical
investigation of an important question, account for the context
in which the study is carried out, align with a conceptual
framework, reflect careful and thorough reasoning, and disclose
results to encourage debate in the scientific community. (p.
4)
In reviewing the book Teacher Inquiry, I find that all
of the studies reported seem to meet the criteria above. In fact,
the high level of scholarship is commendable.
It is evident that teacher research empowers the teachers to
become active participants in making decisions about curriculum
and to help shape the knowledge base of the profession of
teaching. Therefore, proponents of teacher research should work
to develop the construct not only as a viable form of inquiry,
but also a valid one. This book helps to support the notion that
teachers action research can bring new and important knowledge of
the teaching/learning process and that this knowledge can improve
the effectiveness of teachers.
The book begins with an overview presented by the editors. In
chapter 1, Clarke and Erickson define teacher inquiry as insider
research that critically examines teaching and student
development. They affirm that teaching as a professional practice
which differs from technical labor, requires continuous learning
about the profession by staying abreast of developments in the
field and experimenting with innovations that may lead to
improvements in practice. They present a collection of papers
based on their assertion that teaching as a profession evolves
from the insider’s research. The remaining 21chapters of
the book are grouped into three categories.
Part I, entitled Enacting Teacher Research, is composed
of 12 chapters written by teacher practitioners focusing on
examining their own classroom practices and impact of these
practices on student learning. This part begins with Chapter 2,
written by Kim Douillard. It presents a descriptive account of
her work in developing a tool for the assessment of writing. In
her study, she analyzes the relationships between assessment and
writing instruction. The detailed account examines the complex
process of assessing students’ writing and designing
instruction to address the findings of the assessment.
In Chapter 3, Miriam Cooley, an art educator and Chris Lugar,
a teacher of English and Drama examine the impact their practices
had on the personal and artistic development of their students
while they integrated visual arts and drama in the instructional
process. They write from the perspective of reflective
practitioner researchers explained by Taylor (1996) using
reflection-in- action as away to guide their research. The work
demonstrates how their reflections informed their practice.
In Chapter 4, Danan McNamara investigates the impact of an
instructional approach that combines sketching and writing with a
multiage group of 1st, 2nd and
3rd graders. She found that her approach helped
children to think deeply about the world. The thinking helped to
promote their written and oral expression and helped them to
understand writing as process rather than a product. Furthermore,
McNamara found that engaging in research helped her become more
creative and more willing to try out new instructional approaches
in her classroom that were tailored to the needs of her
students.
Shall We Dance is the title of Chapter 5, written by
Peter Gouzouasis and Barbara Leigh. The writers use the dance
metaphor to illustrate the relationships between student teachers
and sponsor teachers. The inquiry took place within the context
of the FAME cohort (Fine Arts and Media Education), a project
that infused play, creativity and imagination in the traditional
curriculum of teacher education. The authors analyze the series
of field experiences implemented in the program and how each
experience contributes to the growth of the student teachers. The
logical reasoning for the matching of student teachers to their
respective mentors is explained through the dance metaphor.
Chapter 6, written by Vinnie Acklin, presents her research of
instructional practices that promoted the development of
vocabulary as a means to improve reading proficiency. The study
included a quantitative analysis of the outcomes through the use
of a test administered to second and third graders. In her
conclusion she articulates the direct impact of the inquiry on
her teaching practices. The chapter shows how teacher research
can be a systematic inquiry where teachers validate their
practices because they make informed decisions based on data
(Fueyo & Koorland, 1997).
Chapter 7, entitled Teaching From the Inside Out, Kit
Grauer and Rosamar Garcia present a case study of a
teacher’s beliefs and practices while integrating the arts
in all areas of the curriculum. The image based study uses
photographs to prompt reflection, interpretation and analysis.
The authors concluded that the use of the digital camera as a
data collection medium was positive in many ways, it opens the
possibility of allowing the participants to be actively involved
in the research process, in addition the images prompted
reflections on practice, and provided a way for teachers to
dialogue with parents about their values about art in
education.
In Chapter 8, Elizabeth and Jim Kreuger examine the
implementation and evaluation of a family-school partnership
where parents were asked to help children with their homework.
The program attempted to include parents in the dialogue about
curriculum needs and to develop a program that rose out of the
needs of the community, important components for successful
parent involvement. The analysis and evaluation are thorough and
included an examination from the perspectives of the different
stakeholders.
Chapter 9, written by a group of teachers under the mentorship
of Carl Leggo, a university professor of language and literacy,
is a descriptive narrative of the teachers’ reflections on
their practices. The work is presented as a performance in a
style often referred to as Readers Theater. It includes prose and
poetry reflecting the main theme of caring as the teachers’
responses to their experiences in the classroom.
Chapter 10 was written by Sharon Shockley Lee and Owen van den
Berg, both university professors. The self-study examined issues
of ethics and power. In their conclusion they argue that teacher
researchers should strive to be ethical by seeking safety for all
involved, allowing for free and equal voice and minimizing power
inequities.
Another example of research that includes the voices of all
participants is the longitudinal narrative research done by
Hasebe-Ludt, Bright, Chambers, Fowler, Pollard and Winsor, the
authors of chapter 11 of the book. The essay describes the first
year of a longitudinal study to examine the meaning of
literacies. Given the expanded understanding of the term literacy
present today to include media literacy, technological literacy
and numeracy, in addition to the more traditional meaning, the
researchers seek to develop a more updated definition of the term
by examining the narratives of teachers, supervisors of student
teachers and young students. They also examined the impact of new
expanded forms of literacies on pedagogical practices and
implication for teacher educators.
Chapter 12, the final chapter in Part I is a collaborative
self-study that examines the professional growth of three
teachers; Donna F Nelson, Kay Strouse and Christine Waechter and
a field experience director, Henry St Maurice. The study takes
place within the context of the current reform in teacher
preparation programs and new rules for teacher licensure. The
chapter includes each teacher’s reflections on professional
growth and action research over a period of five years. The
conclusion includes a discussion of the implications of the
findings for teacher preparation policies.
The work in the first part represents both, research that is
scientific and empirical, as well as artistic in nature. The
empirical studies show a direct relationship between the
conclusions of the study and the impact on practice. In other
words, the teacher researchers findings informed their practice
and made them better teachers. The descriptive work that is more
artistic does not articulate this type of relationship though it
brings to light important aspects of practice that in turn may
become the subject of future research.
Part II, entitled Methods and Models of
Teacher Research, is comprised of four chapters, each
highlighting a specific model of teacher research. Garry Hoban
developed an approach implemented with pre-service teachers. He
developed an Internet web site to assist pre-service teachers in
the process of analyzing and sharing their own experiences. The
chapter explains how pre-service teachers were guided to research
and theorize about their own experiences as learners. Another
model of action research presented in this part makes use of
Problem based learning. The chapter written by Elizabeth Jordan,
Marian Porath and Gillian Bickerton explores project based
learning as a viable approach to inquiry where teacher
researchers are actively involved in learning while researching.
The method involves the teacher setting the classroom activities
so that students are engaged in a problem based learning project.
This project then becomes both “a teaching strategy and a
foundation for research.” Amanda Nicole Gulla explains how
poetry can be used as a self-reflective tool that informs both
the teller of the story and the listener. In the final chapter of
this section, Susan Walsh, explores how a collaborative
arts-based inquiry can be used as a way to do teacher research.
In this approach teachers share art work that is created to
symbolize the fears and pains of teaching. The chapter includes
actual images and text of the nine teachers who participated in
the research carried out by Walsh to illustrate how art can be
used as a tool for interpretation of experiences.
The last part of the book is comprised of six chapters
focusing on emergent issues in teacher inquiry. The section
begins with an analysis of the nature of teacher research by John
Loughran, a respected figure in teacher education. In this
chapter, Loughran explains teacher inquiry as valuable, because
teachers have the ”authority of experience” and
risky, because teacher researchers are directly impacted by the
consequences of the interventions that are a part of their
research. He outlines three conditions for the successful support
of teacher research: teacher researchers should 1) collaborate in
their research and share their findings with others, 2) develop
self confidence to withstand the critical exposures of their own
practices, and 3) communicate findings in a manner appropriate to
the intended audience, other practitioners.
Another important issue is the use of teacher research not
only as a way to inform educational leaders and administrators
but also an approach used by administrators to examine the
validity of their own knowledge of education. Jack Whitehead and
Jacqueline D Delong explain this topic as they narrate their own
self-inquiry.
Ian Mitchell explores why teacher research is important from
the perspectives of four stakeholders: the teacher researchers,
school administrators, system level officials and
university-based teacher educators. The four perspectives are
ways to examine reasons for engaging in teacher research, risks,
costs and barriers to teacher research, how to initiate and
sustain teacher research, the costs, benefits and reasons for
sharing findings and standards for judging the products of
teacher research. He concludes that all stakeholders should be
key players in making research a regular feature of the teaching
field.
Judith McBride explains how teacher research needs to meet
strict criteria to make it valid research and be more than a
teacher’s story. She explores the issue through her own
self study and explains that qualitative teacher research may be
considered valid when it promotes transformation in practice
which is evidence of learning.
Jean McNiff examines the issue of evaluation as an important
aspect of teacher research. She explains evaluation as a process
of self-reflection that promotes growth and improvement of
practices. She also affirms the value of different voices rather
than an affirmation of one right or wrong, good or bad approach.
This view of evaluation recognizes that each action research
describes a perspective that is correct within the context of the
lived experiences of that particular researcher.
In the last chapter of the book, Sarah Fletcher and Jack
Whitehead examined the use of digital video to investigate their
practice with the aim of improving it. This approach to teacher
research uses the digital medium as a technological tool of
self-reflection that may lead to transformation of practice as
teacher researchers become aware of the contradictions present in
their daily professional lives. The tension lies in the
differences between the educators’ values and their
professional actions within the context of the classroom. They
argue that the use of digital video to record classroom practice
brings awareness of these contradictions and promotes improvement
as the educator/researcher seeks to integrate professional values
and practice.
Each chapter in the book illustrates the growth of teachers as
they engaged in inquiry and examined their practice.
Concurrently, each chapter represents the contributions that
teacher practitioners, as insiders in the field, can make to the
knowledge of their profession through systematic research that
informs practice. This book demonstrates that a high level of
scholarship may be attained by teacher researchers. Therefore
Teacher Inquiry is a book that makes an important contribution to
the field of teacher education. Fueyo and Koorland (1997)
explained that preparing teachers as researchers requires careful
curriculum planning and on going dialogue through school based
forums to promote inquiry. This approach to the preparation of
teachers and staff development requires specific knowledge of how
to guide teachers in the process of inquiry. This book can be an
excellent text in graduate courses for teacher educators and
administrators because it provides examples of how teacher
inquiry can become an important component for the promotion of
professionalism in every school setting.
References
Cochran-Smith, M. (2002). What a difference a definition
makes: Highly qualified teachers, scientific research and teacher
education. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(3),
187-188.
Fueyo, V.
& Koorland, M. A. (1997). Teacher as researcher: A synonym
for professionalism. Journal of Teacher Education, 48(5),
336+. Retrieved November 23, 2004, from Questia database,
http://www.questia.com.
Taylor, P. (1996). Doing reflective practitioner research in
arts education. In P. Taylor (Ed.) Researching Drama and Arts
Education: paradigms and possibilities. (pp. 25-58)
Washington: Falmer Press.
About the Reviewer
Alcione N Ostorga is assistant professor of early
childhood and bilingual education at the University of Texas Pan
American. She teaches courses in educational technology,
instructional methods and classroom management and student
teaching seminar. He research focuses on the development of
reflective thinking in preservice teachers and supporting new
teachers' in action research.
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