Becoming a Teacher Through Action Research

by Kalmbach Phillips, Donna

• ISBN13: 9780415952378
• ISBN10: 0415952379
• Edition: CD
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-02-14
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Becoming a Teacher through Action Researchis specifically written for those students seeking initial teacher licensure. Written to support these pre-service teachers, it recognizes that the process of doing action research can serve as a vehicle for assuming the professional identity of a teacher and deals directly with challenges and dilemmas of doing action research as a student teacher. The book is divided into three roads. The main road,Doing Action Research, provides direct instruction for developing a critical question and research design, followed by instruction on how to interpret data. The side-roads, Cultural Context and Self-Study support teacher identity development by allowing opportunity for the reader to analyze and deconstruct both self and cultural paradigms surrounding teaching/researching. The final chapters of the book support the reader in going public with their action research and using the process of action research to move into the first year of teaching and planning for continued professional development. The book is interactive, inviting the reader to respond to text by writing and/or drawing responses. The companion CD allows the reader to either read and interact with the text completely electronically or use a combination of paper text and CD. The CD also includes downloadable templates, interactive charts/graphs, and full text examples of student written action research papers.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	VII
AN INTRODUCTORY GUIDE AND INVITATION	1	(6)
1 BECOMING A STUDENT TEACHER/ACTION RESEARCHER
Images of Teacher and Researcher	7	(9)
Philosophical Underpinnings of Action Research	16	(7)
Research Worlds, Research Lives: Forms of Action Research	23	(6)
Frameworks for Action Research Commonly Used by Preservice Teachers	29	(3)
Being a Student Teacher/Action Researcher	32	(2)
Critical Considerations for Being a Student Teacher/Action Researcher	34	(1)
Inside Track: Secret, Cover, and Sacred Stories	35	(2)
Reconstruction: What I Understand Now About Action Research	37	(2)
Action Research Today: Resources and Websites of the Action Research Community	39	(3)
2 DISCOVERING AN AREA OF FOCUS
Introduction and Overview	42	(1)
Exploring Areas of Interest: Listening to the Self	43	(1)
Exploring your School Context: Listening to Your Setting	43	(4)
Building a Research Community: Colleagues, Coursework, and Literature	47	(8)
Formulating a Critical Question	55	(3)
Sharpening Your Critical Question	58	(6)
3 ACTION RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
Introduction to Data-Collection Methods	64	(3)
The Art and Craft of Data Collection	67	(6)
Understanding Triangulation	73	(6)
The Action Research Design	79	(1)
Sample Integrated Action Research Design	80	(6)
Ethical Considerations of Action Research: Gaining Permission	86	(7)
4 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
Introduction and Overview of Data Analysis and Interpretation	93	(9)
Trustworthiness in Data Interpretation	102	(5)
Ongoing Data Analysis, Synthesis, and Deconstruction	107	(16)
Data Interpretation	123	(2)
Scaffolds for Data Interpretation	125	(9)
Evaluating the Trustworthiness of Your Interpretations: A Checklist	134	(4)
5 TELLING THE STORY OF YOUR ACTION RESEARCH
Telling Your Story	138	(6)
Moving from Data Interpretation to Public Presentation	144	(2)
The Research Paper: Writing Your Story	146	(8)
The Portfolio: Showing Your Story	154	(2)
Using Art Forms to Represent Your Story	156	(1)
Displaying Your Story Using Posters and Brochures	157	(1)
Celebrating and Sharing: Finding Joy and Humility Through Action Research	158	(1)
6 LIVING ACTION RESEARCH AS A PROFESSIONAL EDUCATOR
Looping Back and Articulating What You Know	159	(2)
Action Research and Your First Year of Teaching	161	(4)
Action Research, Energy, Enthusiasm, and Loving Your Job as a Teacher	165	(4)
Becoming an Agent of Change Through Action Research	169	(6)
GLOSSARY	175	(2)
REFERENCES	177	(9)
APPENDIX A: Personal Paradigm Self-Test/Scoring Guide	186	(1)
APPENDIX B: Data Set/Teacher Images	186	(1)
APPENDIX C: Data Set/Teacher Gifts and Clothing	187	(1)
APPENDIX D: Data Set/Teachers According to Hollywood	188	(1)
APPENDIX E: Data-Collection Tools Explored	189	(16)
APPENDIX F: Research Design Templates	205	(5)
APPENDIX G: Gaining Permissions/Letter Template	210	(2)
APPENDIX H: Practice Data Set/Ninth Grade Biology	212	(7)
APPENDIX I: Selected References	219	(2)
INDEX	221