Gertrude Tinker Sachs teaches at the City University of Hong Kong.
This summer I did quite a bit of travelling. I went to Tokyo for the AILA99 conference and then I travelled to the United States, the Bahamas and Canada. There was one thing that was common to all the stops I made: I met teachers who were searching for some excitement in their teaching. The Japanese teacher who kindly agreed to walk with me to the subway station in Tokyo was desperate for "some innovative teaching ideas," as were my relatives, the 3 Bahamian teachers in the Bahamas. The Canadian teacher from Alberta, sat next to me on the plane and for the two and a half hour ride from Miami to Toronto, we talked non-stop about education. What is interesting about all my encounters with these teachers is that they were from different teaching levels, different education backgrounds and contexts, and different ethnic groups but they all aspired to be better teachers and yearned for something more! Bravo for teaching!
These teachers were all looking for ideas to help them maintain
their interest and excitement in teaching but what these teachers
were not really aware of was that they already possessed the
power to invigorate their teaching! I recommended action research
to all the teachers that I met and promised to send them materials
about action research and to work with them if there were keen
to do something about improving the teaching and learning atmosphere
in their classrooms.
For teachers and teacher educators who are interested in investigating
their own practice, and spicing up their teaching and learning
methodologies, I would recommend that they gain inspiration and
encouragement by reading the Action Research books edited by
Anne Burns and Susan Hood, Teachers' Voices 1, 2, 3, and 4.
These publications are based on the action research project initiated
by the National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research
(NCELTR) at Macquarie University in Sidney, Australia. The Australian
based teacher educators were the project co-ordinators for the
Australian Adult Migrant English Programme (AMEP) which started
in 1988. This was a large scale government sponsored initiative
and involved teachers, teacher educators and researchers in developing
effective strategies for working with new adult immigrants to
Australia. The publications tell the stories of the teachers'
participation in various aspects of the action research, hence
the appropriately named title, Teachers' Voices.
In January of this year, I was fortunate to interview Anne Burns about her work with the Adult Migrant Programme and how she worked with the teachers in carrying out the action research paradigm. Extracts from the one and a half hour inspiring interview capture some of the key problem areas in conducting action research. The initials represent: G: Gertrude, the interviewer and writer; and A: Anne Burns.
Participation of Teachers
G: Anne, how did you get teachers to participate in the action
research project?
A: Voluntary participation! We decided to ask for expression
of interest from teachers who would like to be actively involved
in the research project. What we did also was we made very very
clear to teachers right from the outset what the obligations
were in the project. And when we invited expression of interest,
we indicated to them that they would be involved in the research
project for six months with us and that it would feed back into
their practice, but they would also need to agree to collect
the data.
Data Analysis
G: Many teachers worry about the time and effort involved
in the analysis of data. What do you suggest?
A: To move into a research type mode of teaching, I think there
has to be a certain amount of partnership, coaching, mentoring
or support so that they can begin to have a little more self-reflective
time. Having said that, I don't think it's necessary for teachers
to feel burdened by data collecting but in some cases teachers
have done their own data collecting and analysis.
Integrating Action Research Methodology into Regular Practice
G: So, how can action research become more meaningful to classroom
teachers?
A: One of the things Sue would agree with, which both of us feel
strongly about, is that teachers should somehow try to integrate
a lot of work that they normally do in the classroom into their
data collection methodology. So, for example, if you have a communicative
activity in the classroom where you want the learners to survey
each other or ask questions, or if you want to use self-reflective
journals, this lends itself very, very much to data collection
for the project and you can get lots of valuable information
out of that data collection. So one of the things I try to emphasize
very strongly to teachers is to use methods that they feel comfortable
with. I think there are a number of methods that they can use
and we talked about these in our workshops. And to integrate
the methods into the classroom activities so they become at the
same time the teaching tool, but also a method of collecting
some data more systematically than you would normally do.
Practical Concerns
G: What were some of the practical concerns that teachers
experienced in implementing the action research paradigm?
A: I think one of the major problems in many educational organization
is simply the research culture. Many administrators and principals
are not either aware or convinced of the relationship between
research and practice. I think to some extent we've been fortunate
in the Adult Migrant Programme because it has been seen as an
important part of the work of the whole programme.
G: How did teachers respond to the perennial problem of "lack of time"?
A: Yes, teachers were very busy. One of the teachers I worked
with who was extremely positive about doing action research,
in fact, saw it as a very, very positive form of professional
development. When she sent me her evaluation of her project,
I asked her a question: "What was a major problem for teachers
doing the research?" She told me, "Time, time, time,
time." And then I asked her: "What was the disadvantages
of this kind of approach?" She said, 'Time, time, time,
time." So my response to teachers asking me that question
is there is no way to get away from the extra time required,
you have to accept that from the beginning that engaging yourself
in this process is going to take up some of your time. But the
huge advantage is and I've been told constantly by the teachers
I worked with is that they gained so much more than from this
process professionally than any other form of professional development.
Action Research as a form of Professional Development
G: How does action research compare to other forms of teacher
professional development?
A: Compared with workshops where information is simply being
handed down to teachers to disseminate, this is a more fundamental
way of working with teachers in that they are taking real issues
and real problems in their classrooms and they are bringing them
to a collaborative group and what they discovered is that their
problems and their issues are by no means isolated. We have to
move away from the isolationist view of both teaching and teacher
education because it's the collaborative elements which seems
to make huge changes for people and allow them to modify and
renew their practice. The other aspect is what happens when teachers
begin to talk about their own practice. It's immensely affirming
so there is a very strong sense of feeling empowered, feeling
your work is valued, feeling you've been listened to, and feeling
you have some recognition for your work as a teacher.
Getting Started
G: If we say that teachers can start by themselves, what about
the collaborative side of it? What about working with other teachers
to support you and sustain you with the work your are doing?
A: I think if you really are the only person in your school who
wants to do action research and you cannot find any like-minded
people, then I think you have to look for any networking opportunity
outside your school, like join professional associations, where
there may be opportunities for teachers or special interest groups
to join. There are now Internet facilities and, the on line journals
are very good. These provide opportunities for discussion. So
I think you have to look for networking outside of your school
if your own colleagues are not interested.
Teachers' Voices
You have just heard from one of the editors of Teachers' Voices.
Now, you might be more interested in reading the books to find
out what the teachers themselves think and feel about the work
that they have done. Book 1 is about implementing different
aspects of the Adult Migrant curriculum. Susan Hood, provides
a cogent summary of the curriculum and the main findings from
the participating teachers. The teachers' voices provide us with
a variety of view points about incorporating students' input
in the selection of teaching content, approaches to teaching
grammar in the competency-based curriculum and exploring different
assessment approaches. Book 2 targets different learning
groups such as mixed ability classes. What is very interesting
in these reports is how the teachers' concepts of "disparate
groups" changed from a deficit view to an enriched view
of diversity over the duration of the project. The volume documents
these changes in its coverage of a range of subthemes such as
individual and group case studies, students' perceptions on learning
in different contexts, and teaching skills and strategies. Book
3 focuses on the application of different activities for
teaching critical literacy in reading. This book is much thinner
than the previous two but no less rich in its coverage of very
important issues related to the social construction of discourse.
The teachers write about how they develop a critical literacy
approach through oral activities, use of resources and the adoption
of various teaching strategies. The teachers also provide examples
of the texts that they used. The newly released Book 4
is a follow-up to Book 1 and it examines how learner-centredness
can be fostered within a competency-based curriculum. All the
volumes make a strong effort to incorporate learners' views in
their reports and the teachers do this through a range of methodological
approaches such as through questionnaires, case studies and journal
keeping.
I found these books to be very well organised in their presentation of the teachers' voices. The themes and sub-themes make the teachers' stories easy to appreciate. The editors support the teachers' stories with useful introductions and overviews of the action research paradigm and the pertinent literature on the respective book's theme. The books are useful for teachers in any educational context, secondary, primary or tertiary settings and in any location, East or West. They also make worthwhile reading for teacher educators and researchers who are interested in investigating teacher development and new curricula implementation issues through action research which Anne thinks, "is a very good way for helping teachers to make sense of a new curriculum." So, to teachers who wish to invigorate their teaching, think about incorporating action researcher into your teaching routine. If you need some support in getting started, think about the advice given in this article. You need not be alone and in fact, you are not alone in wanting to spice up your teaching!
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