Issue: 1992 Volume 32

(3) Teacher as Researcher: Setting the Stage for a New Role

Karla Lynn Kelsay
Florida State University

Abstract: While educational reformers have recognized that teachers need to move beyond the compliant technician role to that of the reflective practitioner if schools are going to achieve their mission, implementation of that new role is not easily realized. This article offers insights into how teachers could be assisted in moving from being intellectually aware of theories that are unrelated to practice to being empowered to contribute to the knowledge base that shapes their professional growth. The informants for this study were teachers who participated in a “Teacher as Researcher” course at Florida State University, and teacher researchers at the Florida State University School. This article details what happens to teachers when they engage in questioning, hypothesizing, investigating, reflecting, and working cooperatively on research topics that have meaning to them in their own classroom settings.

Citation: Kelsay, K. L. (1992). Teacher as researcher: setting the stage for a new role. Florida Journal of Educational Research, 32(1), 16-26.

Download:  Kelsay.321.pdf (737 downloads )

(2) Teacher as Researcher: An Impetus for Change

Karl Hook
Florida State University School

Abstract: Most teachers teach the way they were taught or in a way that is compatible with their learning style. Any changes they make are usually superficial; rarely do teachers change their underlying pedagogical beliefs and assumptions. This reflective paper, written from a constructivist perspective, illustrates the importance of collaborative research in stimulating teacher change. Based on a longer ethnographic autobiography, it details the personal story of how a teacher-as-researcher project helped one teacher overcome the effects of professional isolation, and altered the teacher’s beliefs from an objectivist set of beliefs based on technical interests to a more constructivist perspective based on students’ emancipatory interests. The article concludes with a set of assertions for facilitating teacher change in a collaborative research model.

Citation: Hook, K. (1992). Teacher as researcher: an impetus for change. Florida Journal of Educational Research, 32(1), 41-51.

Download:  Hook.321.pdf (761 downloads )

(1) Teacher Research: School/University Collaboration From a New Perspective

Catherine Emihovich
Florida State University

Abstract: In the traditional educational research model teachers were not viewed as creators of new knowledge about education, but were perceived simply as consumers of information obtained through research conducted under the process-product paradigm. This paper provides an overview of two concepts that are closely related, the reflective teacher and the teacher researcher, and describes how school- and university-based researchers can more effectively utilize teacher-generated knowledge to help improve our schools. The emerging consensus is that encouraging teachers to become more reflective, or even to become researchers in their own classroom, will help produce significant improvements in education that traditional research has not been able to demonstrate.

Citation: Emihovich, C. (1992). Teacher research: school/university collaboration from a new perspective. Florida Journal of Educational Research, 32(1), 7-15.

Download:  Emihovich.321.pdf (801 downloads )