The Role of Research in Teachers' Work : Narratives of Classroom Action Research

The Role of Research in Teachers’ Work privileges teachers’ voices and explores what teachers themselves say about systematic research, the process of becoming researchers and the establishment of collaborative relationships with their teacher research partner; as well as the impact of research on their identity as teachers and on their students, on student outcomes, and on their pedagogical practices. Unique in contemporary writing on schools, this book and its companion, My School, represent one of the only comprehensive longitudinal studies of a low socioeconomic status secondary school from the perspective of those who learn and teach within it.

In the debate regarding what constitutes teachers’ work, academics and bureaucrats continue to speak for teachers, with teachers’ voices rarely heard and not accorded equal recognition. The Role of Research in Teachers’ Work addresses this imbalance by privileging teachers’ voices as they narrate their experiences of engaging in systematic inquiry. The book embeds the teacher narratives within the scholarly debates about the nature of knowledge and the nature of professional practice.

Scanlon examines the knowledge teachers create through their research and how that knowledge is perceived by others within the school community. This book can be read as a companion volume to Scanlon’s 2015 Routledge publication My School, or as a standalone exploration of teachers’ own narratives of engaging in action research. Together, these two books are unique in contemporary writing on schools, representing one of the only comprehensive longitudinal studies of a low socioeconomic secondary school from the perspective of those who learn and teach therein.

This book enables teachers to be part of the scholarly conversation about their work and the place of research in that work. As such, it should be essential reading for academics, teacher educators and postgraduates in the field of education. It should also be of interest to policymakers and teachers.