Final course response

Hello, all. Since it is the last night, I also wanted to ask you to reflect on the experience of the course as a whole. Looking back at the syllabus, we did quite a bit of reading and discussed many issues critical to teacher research: power, collaboration, process, pedagogical implications, professional development/teacher ed, politics and policy, and various methodological choices. What stands out for you as among the most salient topics we discussed over the last 16 weeks? What will you remember/take with you?

I enjoyed working with you all very much, and I hope you have a wonderful holiday!

Janet

Heather's and Taylor's Presentations

Hi, all. So we come to the last night. Can you believe it? In many ways it was a short semester.

So let's write here about Heather's and Taylor's presentations after they speak tonight.

J

Courtney's and Shay's Presentations

Hello, all! It seems like forever since we last met. I hope you had wonderful holidays. I'm opening this space for discussion after Shay's and Courtney's presentations tonight.

See you soon,
Janet

Valedictorian Speaks Out - Amazing Speech!

I got this from Jim Gilligan on Facebook.  This speech is fantastic!

http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=31620,

Marianne's and Ryan's Presentations

I'm excited about week two of our presentations. Marianne and Ryan present tonight. If the two of you want to write anything in advance, you may write it here. Otherwise, we'll all reflect on your presentations in this space after class tonight.

See you soon.
Janet

Race to Nowhere

So there's a documentary "answering" to Waiting For Superman called Race to Nowhere. Learn about it at http://www.racetonowhere.com/.

Here's how it's described:

Director Vicki Abeles turns the personal political, igniting a national conversation in her new documentary about the pressures faced by American schoolchildren and their teachers in a system and culture obsessed with the illusion of achievement, competition and the pressure to perform. Featuring the heartbreaking stories of young people across the country who have been pushed to the brink, educators who are burned out and worried that students aren’t developing the skills they need, and parents who are trying to do what’s best for their kids, Race to Nowhere points to the silent epidemic in our schools: cheating has become commonplace, students have become disengaged, stress-related illness, depression and burnout are rampant, and young people arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired.

Race to Nowhere is a call to mobilize families, educators, and policy makers to challenge current assumptions on how to best prepare the youth of America to become healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens.

Janet

Week Eleven: Beth's Presentation

Please respond to Beth's presentation tonight here. Beth, also feel free to ask us questions.

A cartoon for Inquiry As Stance Chp. 3

Saw this tonight on reddit.com - I don't have the original source but will share it if I see it.

http://i.imgur.com/L6KEl.jpg

Week Ten Discussion

Hello! This is our last week of class with official "readings." Can you believe it! After this Thursday the 28th we will focus on course presentations, and our blog responses will be discussions about these presentations and your related seminar projects. Thanks for your thoughtful posts about last week's readings. It seems that the examples of teacher research really allowed you to begin to synthesize our discussions/readings throughout the semester and consider the many uses (and potential misuses) of teacher research.

For this week, we are focusing on Teacher Research and Institutional/Policy Change. There are a couple of chapters to read in _Inquiry as Stance_ and three articles I will email to you today. In short, these readings ask questions about how teacher research might be directly connected to policy change at the institutional or even governmental levels. How can knowledge generated from teacher research, which is often related to personal contexts and not viewed as definitive, be used to create/change policy? How can teachers/teacher educators argue for such a use of knowledge from teacher research? How is teacher research a kind of social movement? How is "inquiry as stance" (Cochran-Smith and Lytle) an important metaphor for its potential to create change? And, perhaps most important, do you buy this argument? Can teacher research accomplish educational reform?

Speaking of inquiry - curiosity is right out

I found this story today about the policies for AP History at Westfield High School in the DC area.  You have to read the story to believe it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/17/AR2010101702798.html

Interesting Links

Hi, all. Here are a couple of interesting articles about a recent "manifesto" for educational reform written by Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee and others published in _The Washington Post_. I thought you might be interested in how these opinion pieces argue against the notion that lack of teacher "accountability" and competence are the problem with education today.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-welner/waiting-for-accountabilit_b_760491.html?view=print

http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/ib286/

Week Nine Discussion

Hello, class. This week, October 21, we will not be meeting for our regular class. Instead, I'll be meeting with each of you individually about your seminar projects. However, go ahead and read as indicated on the syllabus and post on the blog about the readings.

This week is really about the publication of teacher research--exploring examples of teacher research studies which have been disseminated to other teachers, researchers, etc. So read some examples of your choice from the Cochran-Smith and Lytle books as well as the two published studies I'll email to you. Then, reflect on the benefits and drawbacks of the publication or dissemination of teacher research. Is this dissemination vital to solidify the importance of teacher research? Is it inconsistent with the purpose of teacher research, which is improved classroom practice? Did you learn anything from the published pieces that you think helps you as a teacher? Whom does the publication of such research benefit? Should teachers be encouraged to write and publish their research?

Discussion space for final projects

Hi, there. Use this space to freewrite about your final project idea and invite feedback from others.

Week Eight Discussion

This week's topic: Discourse Analysis. What is it? What are the various definitions of it? What are some of the ways it might be conducted or theorized? How might it dovetail with case study research or ethnography? Why might it be of particular interest to teacher researchers? I think it's particularly helpful when you quote from the texts and respond to these quotations, so I encourage you to include citations in your posts, in addition to discussing anything else of interest.

Interesting form of teacher research. . .

This isn't quite what we are discussing in class, but I wanted to mention another blog that I follow.  It's called Fed Up with Lunch, and it's written by a teacher who has decided to eat the same school lunch that the children eat every day and then write about the experience.  She photographs everything as she's eating, too.  I hope you all find it as interesting as I do!

Week Seven Discussion

This week we begin a two-week journey exploring influential methodologies in the genre of teacher research. This week we are investigating Ethnography and the Case Study. After reading through the two NCRLL volumes, reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of these two approaches. How are case studies and/or ethnographies consistent with our previous study of the goals, means, and challenges of teacher research? Are there any ways that these methodologies are inconsistent with how and why teachers engage in research? Last, do these methodologies pose any particular practical, theoretical, or ethical challenges for the teacher researcher?

Janet

Week Six Discussion

Hello, everyone. I'm posting to open up discussion of the topic for Week Six, which is a continuation of our discussion of teacher research for teacher education/professional development. In addition to discussing the key themes that arise in the readings (the dialectic between research and practice, the influence of the "reputation" of teacher research, the role of communities in teacher research, and university obstacles to teacher research), I also want to focus our discussion this week on the issue of teacher/researcher identity which Andy brought up in his presentation last week. What does it mean to have a researcher identity or to see oneself as a researcher? Is this identity in conflict with a teacher identity? While I don't want to add a lot of reading to your load, to facilitate this discussion I'm going to send you tomorrow a section from my book _Teacher Identity Discourses_ which provides a short overview of the history of teacher education in the US. I think this section will help contextualize our discussion. I'm also pasting in below an email Andy sent me after class elaborating on this issue. He gave me permission to send it to you.

See you Thursday,
Janet

Andy's email:

Janet,

Thanks again for inviting me to class yesterday!

I hope I didn't seem too pessimistic. I was thinking about this in the car afterwords--I think that, if you caught me on a week when I was better rested, I'd probably show a bit more enthusiasm.

I also found myself thinking a bit about identity, again. I think it took me a long time to develop a "teacher identity"--to feel like I really belonged in front of the classroom. (This might have been easier if I'd gone through a full four-year program, instead of TTT--but I couldn't afford that route. If not for TTT I wouldn't be teaching at all.)

I think, similarly, it would take me several years to develop an identity as a real, authentic researcher. At this point, it's much like those first days in the classroom--I don't really feel like I have the authority to claim what I'm doing is real, authentic research. It still feels like I'm playing a role, and that colors my perceptions of the value of my work. Not that rational, I suppose, but perhaps most human behavior isn't once you think about it.

I don't know if that insight is as useful to you or to the class as it is to me. Still, if it helps, there it is.

It will probably be a few years before I re-enroll at Purdue--I think my next step is to earn a journalism license, which means some time at Ball or IU--but I suspect I will be looking at PhD programs one of these years. Perhaps I'll eventually be back in your classroom. Meanwhile, let me know if you should have any other suitable guest speaker vacancies.

Regards,
Andy

don't forget

Don't forget to also look at the readings I forwarded via email last week from Dr. de Oliveira.

Janet

Week Five Discussion

Beginning this week, I think we're ready for more independence! :) In fact, I _know_ we are! Post about something of interest to you concerning Week Five's readings, including related issues, ideas, thoughts, questions, relevant news items, etc. Quoting from the readings is always good, as is directly responding to the posts of your classmates. Remember you can link to outside articles or texts if they are pertinent. Even though I'm out of town next Monday-Wednesday conducting an external review of the English education program at Central Michigan University, I will join in the conversation as well. I will see you Thursday in class, as usual. Enjoy!

Week Four Discussion

Hello, all. I'm looking forward to class this week and talking about all your wonderful posts from last week. Thanks for your active participation! I'm also looking forward to discussing the readings for this week as listed on your syllabus. Remember that I sent the three articles to you as PDF files last week; if you need them again, please let me know. In this post I've included some prompts to help us begin discussion of these readings, including the Cochran-Smith chapters.

Below are (hopefully) provocative quotes from the two chapters and three articles for Week Four. Respond to the quotes openly--what are your thoughts about the statement? Do you agree/disagree? What other texts or theories or theorists might it remind you of? Does the quote make you think of any similar experiences/thoughts you have had? Etc. If none of these quotes appeal to you, please select your own, copy it, and respond.

"As might be expected, teachers enter the taking stock process displaying a variety of attitudes and concerns. Teacher directed action research is designed to be empowering and most teachers responded positively. While participation was voluntary and teachers have "bought into" the process, some can interpret their participation as an indirect requirement for maintaining good standing with the principal and colleagues in the school. Still others may enter the action research activity with the hidden agenda of documenting the accuracy of long held or strongly held beliefs and assumptions." (McCarthy & Riner, p. 225)

"How do we interrogate assumptions and practices when they are embedded in the very language we speak? How do we understand how shifts at broader levels of the system penetrate discourses and practices at local levels? Social practices like teaching are viewed by Foucault as discursive practices. Discourses shape practices and practices produce discourses, and some authors use the term discourse-practice to denote this circular dynamic." (Herr & Anderson, p. 389)

"Without a clear focus on the politics of schooling and the need for community organizing to build and sustain meaningful reform, little has been accomplished even in urban districts where people of color occupy educational and civic leadership positions" (Glass, p. 15)

"The considerable range and variation of practitioner research have contributed to its richness and vitality but, at the same time, perhaps undermined its coherence as an intellectual and social movement with a palpable impact on emerging policies." (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, Inquiry as Stance, p. 35)

three articles sent, 9/3

I just sent everyone the three articles for week 4 via email. Let me know if you can't open them or didn't receive them.

Janet

Week Three Discussion

Hello, class. As you know, we are not meeting next week, Sept. 9, as I will be out of town. I do want you to continue posting at least once per week on this blog, however. Here are some possible discussion topics for Week Three:

Have you ever tried your hand at teacher research? How did it go? What did you learn?

Pretend that you have to argue to your university advisor that a teacher research approach is valid for your PhD dissertation. How would you frame this argument? Would points would you be sure to include?

Narratives are stories. Many teacher research studies are researched and/or disseminated through narrative or storytelling. Do you think this storytelling undermines the "seriousness" of the research? Why or why not? How do you feel about narrative research as a methodology?

Often teacher research questions stem from a teacher trying an approach in class and finding that it doesn't work as hoped. The research question then becomes, "why" didn't it work? The focus is on closing the gap between expectations and reality. Do you think this is a good way for teachers to approach teacher research? Why or why not?

Other topics of interest???

Practicing K-12 Teacher Researchers

Does anyone know of current K-12 teachers who have engaged in action/teacher research? If so, can you share their names and schools here? I would like to invite some of them to speak to our class.

Janet

Week Two Discussion

Before class on September 2, please respond at least once to the following prompt and/or peers' responses:

What is the nature of teacher research? Is teacher research, "research"? What are its critical features? Who conducts it, reads it, and uses it? What kinds of questions or theories does it stem from and/or generate? How does teacher research vary in method, analysis, and interpretation? What sorts of topics do teacher researchers explore?

Welcome to Teacher Research!

To begin our online experience, please take a few minutes to introduce yourself to the group. What is your degree program/major? What kinds of teaching experience do you have? Why did you sign up for this course, and what do you hope to learn from it?