| Investigating Our Practices
In-forming Practice Through Action Research
Linda Peterat & Gale Smith
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, B.C.
The research papers in this section of Educational
Insights were developed as part of a master’s
of education cohort offered in Chilliwack by the Department
of Curriculum Studies, University of British Columbia
(UBC). The master’s program began in the fall of
2004 and the courses offered in Chilliwack extended over
two years. The theme of the program was “inquiry
or investigation into practice” and the students
were required to attend an annual conference by the same
name (Investigating Our Practices, IOP) held at UBC each
May. In the first year they attended and observed, in
the second year they presented their research in progress.
Typically a master’s program requires a graduating
project, paper or thesis but frequently that research
does not get shared with students’ peers or the
broader educational community. So the culminating course
in this program required students to author two papers
based on their research that would meet the publication
requirements of two educational journals.
How would you respond to the question, “what is
research?” or even “what is action research?” Many
of us are steeped in technocratic rationality so frequently
the response to the first question carries scientific imaginary
of testing a hypothesis or trying to solve a problem. When
the Chilliwack cohort students were asked to find a research
report that had action research as a key word, many of
the reports followed a scientific problem solving approach.
We wanted to de-mystify research and to shift the thinking
of graduate students, who were teachers, from seeing themselves
as consumers of research to becoming researchers of practice.
And, we wanted to shift the thinking to show that rather
than hypothesis testing, action researchers “deliberately
seek the difficult, the unknown, the ambiguous, [and] the
unpredictable” (Sumara, 1998, 42) in order to develop
new insights and knowledge. The goal is not to test or
impose theories but to continually develop, assess and
revise theories that contribute to an emerging epistemology,
ontology and axiology of practice.
Action research enables thoughtful reflection, new understandings
and change. As research that is both for education
and with others, it can both in-form and form practice.
Action research changes us; what we think and what we do.
If we think of practice as the way we are with others,
then it is all about relationships. How we are with others
is what matters. As instructors and advisors in the program,
we attempted to have “inquiry” permeate all
the courses in the program. We taught curriculum theory,
research methods, action research and we were the two readers
who approved the two final papers as meeting the necessary
requirements of a graduating project.
Students’ initial research questions evolved as
in each course they were able to investigate different
questions and experience different research methodologies,
including document analysis, media analysis, phenomenology,
narrative and poetic inquiry, literature review, and action
research. The supportive community that develops among
a group of students who take six courses together is conducive
to action research as students benefit from critical friends
at each step along the way.
Practice requires a heightened consciousness of our own
implication in theorizing practice, the courage to find
our voice, and to speak anew. Last summer as the students
reported on the research that they had conducted in their
classrooms on their own practice, it struck us that “it
takes courage to research your own practice.” We
were moved by how open they were to exposing their vulnerabilities
and their intensely personal journeys. Action research
also enables humbleness, empathy, care, and humour. They
all spoke of the power of self-study and the need to reflect
on practice. Comments were made, such as, ”I had
to face my own shortcomings” and “I was surprised
with how little we know about teaching.”
We too have had similar experiences in researching our
practice as faculty advisors (see Peterat & Smith,
2001). In this master’s program, we were challenged
to understand the relationship between our learning about
teaching about research and writing, and the learning resulting
from doing teacher action research undertaken by the members
of the Chilliwack cohort. We express this as in-forming
practice/tioners because we want to emphasize that
our practice is very much who we are. It is the space of in-betweeness represented
by the hyphen and the backslash that is fascinating and
worthy of inquiry. It is in this space that tension, vulnerability,
emotion reside. For example, the tension between in-forming
practice as “to guide and advise” and in-forming
practitioners as “imparting knowledge or principles” was
especially evident as we co-laboured/collaborated with
students through the writing process of the culminating
assignment. Students submitted a minimum of two drafts
for our responses. While we encouraged creative approaches
in researching and writing, sometimes we found ourselves
saying, “you need to include your research question” or “where
is your literature review” or “needs a conceptual
framework” locating ourselves in more traditional
frameworks of research reporting. The words of Jack Whitehead
(1993) who says that when we inquire into questions such
as “how do I more fully live my values in my practice”,
we often have we have to admit that we are “living
contradictions” reverberated. It was us who determined
when the papers were ready to meet the requirements of
a graduating paper. Did we stifle creativity? Did we move
from power “with” to power “over”? In-forming
practice means living in questions, living in
a state of anxiety, as we constantly examine, inquire into,
and evolve our practice, but this un-ease provides the
vitality that sustains our educational commitments and
professional work in education.
All the papers in this section, written by the students
in the Chilliwack cohort illustrate that while we begin
with inquiry into our practices, unavoidably we end up
investigating who we are and how we are or should be with
others. Inquiry into our practices requires us to attune
to the experience and perspectives of our students. We
become better listeners and better observers; we begin
to see anew, to learn about and from our students, to learn
about our practices and our selves. There is a tentativeness
and unpredictability about researching practice. Do teacher
researchers find it threatening and do they feel vulnerable?
Absolutely. And so, action research requires us to venture,
to take risks, to engage in our practices at a deeper level,
to become alive again in our profession. But all of this
makes learning possible. It breaks barriers, masks, and
boundaries to bring us as educators more in touch with
our practice and restore it as a wholistic learning practice
that engages the mind, body, and feelings. It allows us
to live more fully as educators. It revitalizes us.
References
Peterat, L. & Smith, M. G. (2001) (Eds.). Informing
practice through action research. Peoria, IL: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.
Sumara, D. J. (1998). Action research as a postmodern
practice. Interchange, 29(1), 33-45.
Whitehead, J. (1993). The growth of educational knowledge:
Creating your own living educational theories. Bournemouth,
Dorset: Hyde Publications.
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