The Practitioner-Academic Research Divide Endures: A Review of Teacher Research in the Content Areas

• In Event: 25.083 - MTCC Roundtable Session Eight
  In Roundtable Session: 25.083-1 - Historicizing and Problematizing Research on Teacher Learning

Abstract

For over three decades, scholars have theorized about the growing movement of teacher research, where school-based practitioners engage in systematic examinations of their own work. They have argued that teacher research challenges relationships of knowledge and practice, as teacher-researchers are likely to ask different questions and offer different perspectives compared to university-based researchers. Synthesizing teacher research studies published in peer-review journals across the content areas of mathematics, science, social studies, and literacy/language arts, this review compares the questions asked and results reported on content area studies done by PreK-12 teacher- and university-based researchers. This review provides a critical examination of our understanding of classroom instruction and student learning, revealing the important potential of practitioner research to inform educational change.

Authors

• Christopher C. Martell, University of Massachusetts - Boston

• Erin A. Hashimoto-Martell, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

• Katherine Ariemma Marin, Stonehill College

• Mary Margaret Carney, Dracut High School