Taking Action: (Re)Imagining Professional Development Through the Teacher Research Project

• In Event: Practitioner Inquiry as a (Re)Imagined Space: Action Researchers’ Voices From the Field — Envisioning Possibilities

Abstract

This paper presents an overarching action research study connected by individual action research studies to explore what a cohort of preservice elementary Master of Arts in Teaching candidates learned from the process of action research as a (re)imagined form of authentic professional development to aid with student achievement in urban settings. Data came from 12 preservice teachers' written reflections on their processes of conducting a four-month Teacher Research Project (TRP) during their student teaching semester in Spring 2016. Teachers' voices are prominent in this study. Data analysis reveals that their conceptions within professional development were further broken down into five sub-categories: individual, student, community network, pedagogy, and empowerment. Implications for preservice teacher education and inservice professional development are discussed.

Author

• Joan Gujarati, Brown University