Becoming a Teacher through Action Research: Process, Context, and Self-Study

304 Pages·2013·2.21 MB·English

by  Donna Kalmbach Phillips

BECOMING
A TEACHER
THROUGH
ACTION
RESEARCH
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BECOMING
A TEACHER
THROUGH
ACTION
RESEARCH
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - -
Process, Context, and Self-Study
Third Edition
D K P K C
ONNA ALMBACH HILLIPS AND EVIN ARR
Third edition published 2014
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
The right of Donna Kalmbach Phillips and Kevin Carr to be identified as
authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
First edition published 2006 by Routledge
Second edition published 2010 by Routledge
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013954529
ISBN: 978–0–415–66049–5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978–1–315–86749–6 (ebk)
Typeset in Utopia
by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon
TABLE OF CONTENTS
IX ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
XI INTRODUCTION: BECOMING A TEACHER THROUGH ACTION RESEARCH—AN INTRODUCTORY GUIDE AND INVITATION
xvii Introduction to the Cultural Context Activities
xviii Introduction to the Self-Study Activities
1
BECOMING A STUDENT TEACHER-ACTION RESEARCHER
2 Images of Teacher and Researcher
5 Exploring “Action” and “Research”
9 Philosophical Underpinnings of Action Research
13 Research Worlds, Research Lives: Forms of Action Research
20 Frameworks for Action Research Commonly Used by Preservice Teachers
22 Being a Student Teacher-Action Researcher
28 Reconstruction: What I Understand Now About Action Research
30 Content and Process Questions
31 Self-Study 1.1: Personal Interview
32 Cultural Context 1.1: To Deconstruct
34 Cultural Context 1.2: Images of School and Society
2
DISCOVERING AN AREA OF FOCUS
39 Introduction and Overview
40 Exploring Areas of Interest: Listening to Self
40 Explore your School Context: Listening to your Setting
44 Building a Research Community: Colleagues, Coursework, and Literature
53 Formulating a Critical Question
56 Sharpening Your Critical Question
59 Dissecting Your Critical Question
60 Summary
61 Content and Process Questions
62 Self-Study 2.1: Images of Self as Student Teacher-Researcher
64 Cultural Context 2.1: Getting to Know Your Classroom Culture
67 Cultural Context 2.2: Analyzing School Documents
3
ACTION RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
69 Introduction to Data Collection Methods
73 Trustworthy Data Collection
75 Data Collection Methods
77 Purpose and Data Collection
79 Understanding Triangulation
83 Bringing it all Together: Your Research Data Compilation
89 Problematizing Practice: Applying the Key Concepts of Data Collection
93 Synthesizing the Act of Data Collection
94 Content and Process Questions
95 Self-Study 3.1: Personal Perspective and Reading the Classroom
V
CONTENTS
97 Cultural Context 3.1: The Art and Craft of Negotiation
99 Cultural Context 3.2: When “New” Information Changes the Design
4
ACTION RESEARCH DESIGN
101 Introduction to Action Research Design
102 The Action Research Design
102 The Context of the Study: Setting, Participants, and Researcher
103 The Context of the Study: The Story Behind the Action Research Project
104 Insight from Distant Colleagues (Literature Review)
104 Methodology: How the Problem, Dilemma, and/or Issue Will Be Addressed
107 Meaningful Results and Sharing
107 Analyzing and Deconstructing the Action Research Design for Cultural Competency
110 Summary
110 Content and Process Questions
111 Self-Study 4.1: Rethinking your Action Research Design Through a Cultural Proficiency Lens
113 Self-Study 4.2: The Action Research Design and Cultural Proficiency
116 Cultural Context 4.1: Context Matters
5
ONGOING DATA ANALYSIS
117 Introduction and Overview of Data Analysis and Interpretation
118 Shared Concepts of Ongoing Data Analysis and Final Data Interpretation
122 A Cycle for Ongoing Data Analysis
123 Informal Ongoing Analysis
127 Organizing Data for Ongoing Analysis
133 Formal Ongoing Analysis and the Reflective Pause
140 Resisting Conclusions: Going with the Questions, the Dilemmas, and the Conflict
142 Changing Courses: Using Ongoing Analysis to Redirect and/or Refine the Action Research Study
144 Content and Process Questions
145 Self-Study 5.1: The Teacher-Researcher as Strategic Intervention
147 Self-Study 5.2: The Student Teacher-Researcher and Classroom Management
148 Self-Study 5.3: Scaffolding the Learning
151 Cultural Context 5.1: Practicing Deconstruction and Trustworthiness During Ongoing Data Analysis
6
FINAL DATA INTERPRETATION
153 Final Data Interpretation: Introduction and Overview
156 General Steps for Data Interpretation
161 Data Interpretation Illustrated: Liri’s Journey Through Data Interpretation
166 Drafting Synthesis Statements
169 Other Views of Data Interpretation: Alternative Scaffolds and Variations on These Scaffolds
170 One Last Look at Criteria for Trustworthiness
172 Content and Process Questions
173 Self-Study 6.1: A Cautionary Tale of Data Interpretation: Pamela’s Story and the Case for Self-Reflexivity
175 Cultural Context 6.1: The Numbers Tell the Story
178 Cultural Context 6.2: Reading Empirical Research
VI
CONTENTS
7
TELLING THE STORY OF YOUR ACTION RESEARCH
185 Telling Your Story
186 How Should Action Research Sound? The Cultural Context of Academic Work
188 Guidelines for Going Public With Your Action Research
190 Developing Personal and Professional Style and Voice
192 Moving from Data Interpretation to Public Presentation
193 The Research Paper: Writing Your Story
201 The Portfolio: Showing Your Story
203 Using Art Forms to Represent Your Story
204 Using Posters and Brochures to Display Your Story
205 Celebrating and Sharing: Find Joy and Humility Through Action Research
206 Content and Process Questions
8
LIVING ACTION RESEARCH AS A PROFESSIONAL EDUCATOR
207 Looping Back and Articulating What You Know
208 Reviewing Major Themes of Student Teacher Action Research
208 Reviewing Action Research Technique
210 Reconsidering Triangulation
210 Action Research and Your First Year of Teaching
213 Action Research, Energy, Enthusiasm, and Loving Your Job as a Teacher
217 Becoming an Agent of Change Through Action Research
220 Forming a Vision, Creating a Plan
221 Beginning Again (and Always)
223 APPENDIX A: Personal Paradigm Self-Test/Scoring Guide
224 APPENDIX B: Data Set/Teacher Images
225 APPENDIX C: Data Set/Teacher Gifts
226 APPENDIX D: Dissecting and Re-Formulating Your Critical Question
227 APPENDIX E: Data Collection Tools Explored
248 APPENDIX F: General-Purpose Research Design Template
250 APPENDIX G: Gaining Permissions/Letter Template
252 APPENDIX H: Practice Data Set
258 APPENDIX I: Analytic Memos
267 APPENDIX J: Strategies for Thinking About Data
272 GLOSSARY
276 REFERENCES
285 INDEX
VII
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A thing done or given in recognition of something received; a declaration or avowal of one’s act of a fact
to give it legal validity . . . an open declaration of something (as a fault or the commission of an offense)
about oneself
. . . see CONFESSION.
(Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2005)
And so we acknowledge . . . that we have been given much by many and are unable to make
a complete account for this generosity; we cannot trace completely the wonder of rhizomic
lines leading to people, places, and situations influencing the writing of this book, or of the
many discourses playing, seducing, and commanding our written words. We confess to writ-
ing this textbook while living somewhere in a zone of contradiction (Whitehead, 1989), prac-
ticing inquiry not only as stance (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999) but as a run, a ride, a trek, and
as a resting place—as a koan whose answer we have not yet worked through.
We wrote the first edition of this book in the act of doing life; we wrote the second edi-
tion of this book during the act of doing a re-visioning of both the text of the book and the text
of our lives. We come to the third edition of this book at a time of doing re-imaging of our lives
and understanding that text/life has never been a binary. We come to the writing searching
deeper, listening more carefully, questioning more directly, feeling the urgency of becoming:
“A line of becoming is not defined by points it connects . . . on the contrary, it passes between
points, it comes up through the middle” (Deleuze & Guattari, 1980/1987, p. 293). And we con-
fess: The “points” of first, second, and third edition are illusionary and we do not know all of
the where and what and who and how that have passed through in it/our becoming.
We write this third edition in the company of students, former, current, and those stu-
dents still to come, who challenge our thinking, our way of being, our comfortable and habit-
ual zones of teaching. We write this book in acknowledgment that the world of teaching and
becoming teacher is in upheaval: national standards and testing, merit pay, “data-driven,”
violence shattering illusions of safety–all are altering landscapes, creating pressure points and
fissures, and urgency for teachers who are critical and creative thinkers and leaders; question-
ers and visionaries; advocates of children and adolescents; dreamers and believers in what
school might become. The words of Archbishop Oscar Romero, “We are prophets of a future
not our own” still whisper from our walls and we find a new commitment to these words,
to our students and we confess: we do not know where their words, concerns, and passions
become our words, concerns and passions and therefore encompass the text of this book.
We write this third edition in the middle and beginning of introducing new programs,
developing innovative curriculum for learning to teach differently, with community part-
ners who require us to practice the words of this book, critical-self-reflexivity-in-action-
research, even as we write. These new colleagues, these altered visions of what “teaching”
IX