Building the Bridge as We Walk on It: Reflections on the Tensions of Teacher Research

• In Event: Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring the Scholar in Self-Study

Abstract

This paper describes the tensions endemic to teacher research by particularizing three teacher researchers’ reflections on the process of teaching action research courses to graduate students. This self-study describes our various teaching experiences and identifies three major tensions common to each of us in our various settings: a) teaching action research while doing it, b) helping teachers ask “important” questions, and c) helping students publish teacher research papers written for university courses. In describing these tensions, we share collaborative ways we negotiated these tensions within the contexts of our own experiences. These questions matter to those who live and work in teacher research contexts, as we corporately seek to strengthen and legitimize the voices of teacher researchers.

Authors

• Susanna M. Steeg, George Fox University

• Amy M. Markos, Arizona State University - Tempe

• Angela Renee Clark-Oates, Arizona State University