Teacher-Researchers at Work

By: Cindy O'Donnell-Allen
Publication: The Voice, Vol. 6, No. 4
Date: September-October 2001

Summary: Don't miss the English Journal review of the NWP book Teacher-Researchers at Work.

Teacher-Researchers at Work
Marion S. MacLean and Marion M. Mohr. Berkeley, CA:
National Writing Project, 1999. 290 pp. $15.00 paperback.
ISBN 1-883920-11-6.

Reprinted from the July 2001 issue of English Journal, a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Peterson's Field Guides are to the birder what the book Teacher-Researchers at Work is to the teacher researcher. And, like all great "field guides," this one should prove useful to novices and veterans alike. This is the second book high school English teachers MacLean and Mohr have written together (the first was Working Together: A Guide for Teacher Researchers, NCTE, 1987), and it draws on their nearly twenty years of experience in conducting teacher research in their own classrooms, facilitating numerous seminars, and working with teacher research groups in schools, universities, and writing projects. Despite their expertise, these seasoned teacher researchers are anything but condescending. Early in the book, they position themselves as follows:

We speak colleague to colleague. Teacher-researcher to teacher-researcher. Our "you" addresses our readers, and most of the writing is in that voice. Our "they" speaks of teacher-researchers in general. Our "we" is our combined voice coming from our combined experience. We are not reporting on research, but are describing experience and practice. (vii)

This position and their cumulative wisdom result in a reassuring voice aimed at teachers who want to know what teacher research is and why they ought to do it--even in the face of the already overwhelming work of teaching.

MacLean and Mohr offer a broad and accessible definition of teacher research in their preface. Their discussion begins, "So what is teacher research? It is research conducted by teachers as they go about their daily work . . ."(vii-ix). They go on to explain that all a novice needs to begin is "a question, a place to record your thoughts, and some colleagues to work with you" (1). They revisit the term "teacher research" several times throughout the book, both directly and through the numerous examples they provide of teacher researchers in action. This recursivity allows readers new to the field to immerse themselves at a comfortable pace and to discover how valuable both the process and the product of teacher research can be. While teacher research is a unique form of "professional development that respects the knowledge and experience of the teachers involved" (ix), teacher researchers' findings are immediately useful to teachers, their students, and the profession as a whole. MacLean and Mohr maintain that the classroom is the "dynamic core, the source," but they also insist that teacher research "moves beyond the classroom and has the potential to affect the teaching and learning lives of others" (156).

Divided into four parts, the book need not be read in a linear fashion, though beginning teacher researchers may wish to do so. The first two sections are organized to address various frequently-asked questions surrounding "A Teacher Research Process" and "Questions and Issues" in the field. Part 1 consists of twelve short chapters, each devoted to an essential component of conducting a teacher research study such as choosing a research question, recording observations in a research log, working with other teacher researchers, collecting and analyzing data, and going public with one's result. Immensely practical, these chapters feature numerous tools and strategies, including general timelines for completing a yearlong study, focus questions and suggestions to consider at each stage of the process, excepts form teacher researchers' logs, data samples, and systems for managing the overwhelming accumulation of data. The chapter on data analysis--undoubtedly one of the most challenging stages of any study--contains useful writing and visualization strategies "designed to help you move in and out of your data, from discrete parts to whole views" (59). The following strategy, for example, helps teacher researchers "abstract and distill" their tentative findings:

State the essence of your findings as if you had to explain what you had discovered in 50 words or less. Write as if you have been invited to speak extemporaneously at a conference or as if conference planner have asked you to FAX an abstract of your research to them the next day. (63)

This prompt is followed by and actual form MacLean and Mohr have used for this purpose.

Part 1 concludes with two chapters in which MacLean and two other teacher researchers draw on studies they've conducted to explain their personal renditions of the general teacher research process. Their concluding of Part 1 with such candid voices emphasizes that even though the previous ten chapters might make conducting teacher research appear to be "methodical, purposeful, and thorough," in reality, one's study may feel "haphazard, almost slipshod" at times (90). Beginning teacher Julie Fisher's account of her first attempt at teacher research confirms that the process is often fraught with false starts, doubts, and questions, though it eventually leads to greater understanding, especially with the support of a teacher research group. "The important things are to observe, record your observations and reflections, and talk about what you see," Fisher reminds us. "For only by learning about what goes on in our classrooms can we truly teach not only the students but ourselves" [Fisher's italics] (104).

In Part 2, the authors address the tensions inherent in assuming the dual role of teacher and researcher, as well as tackling such crucial issues as the validity, reliability, and ethics of teacher research; finding time to conduct it; facilitating a teacher research group; and sharing one's findings beyond the classroom. The collection of teacher research articles that comprise Part 3 of the book demonstrates the wide variety of forms teacher researchers' final reports can take, depending on their original purposes and their intended audience. Finally, Part 4 alone is worth the book's purchase price. Here, MacLean and Mohr provide a gold mine of resources intended to "introduce you to the teacher research community and . . . support you as you become a part of it" (259). They not only describe opportunities for networking both locally and nationally, but even list their own email addresses "in hopes that some of you will let us know how your research is coming along" (262). (And yes, they will reply!) They also provide contact information for several agencies committed to funding teacher research, including NCTE, IRA, and the Spencer Foundation, and they offer models of courses, school-based programs and, and university degree programs centered on teacher research. They conclude the book with a bibliographic essay of works that have influences their thinking as teacher researchers and a conventional bibliography grouped into three sections: texts that provide a background for teacher research, texts written about teacher research, and works by teacher researchers.

Connie Zitlow, Editor