how to inspire teachers to be proactive, reflective professionals who take ownership of their own professional development?’ Teachers vary in their learning styles, their level of engagement and their understanding of the benefits of acquiring and developing their competences. Therefore, their focus on internal or external stimuli for engagement in professional development will vary (European Commission on Teaching, 2013, p. 34)

This proposal reports on a teacher researcher group that we formed (along with two co-facilitators) which consisted of 12 secondary school teachers/administrators (excluding ourselves). Over two years we met monthly for approximately two hours. In order to understand the process more fully we conducted research on the teacher researcher group.

The research questions were:

1. What processes did we use for developing the teacher-research group? What worked and what did not work?
2. What impact did the teacher researcher group have on the participants?
3. How did we develop a research community for and with a group of teachers?

Why Teacher Research?

Professional development (PD) can take many forms. Earley and Porritt (2012) draw on the Training and Development Agency’s definition of PD: “a reflective activity designed to improve an individual’s attributes, knowledge, understanding and skills. It supports individual needs and improves professional practice” (Training and Development Agency, 2012). Similarly, Schon (1983) argues that both reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action are important forms of professional learning.

As governments narrow curricula and try to codify what teachers should know and be able to do supporting teacher researcher groups is essential.  For example, Finnish guidelines for teaching and teacher education are very general, with many of the details developed locally (Sahlberg, 2011). In particular, extensive, top-down interference in teaching and teacher education can be counterproductive because it strips from teachers opportunities for learning and their professionalism.

European Commission on Teaching (2013) supports teacher development :

To be fully effective in teaching, and capable of adjusting to the evolving

needs of learners in a world of rapid social, cultural, economic and

technological change, teachers themselves need to reflect on their own

learning requirements in the context of their particular school environment, and to take greater responsibility for their own lifelong learning as a means of updating and developing their own knowledge and skills. (p. 9).   

Teacher research took root in the 1990’s. It has been defined as the systematic “research that is initiated and carried out by teachers in their classrooms and schools” (Shagoury & Powell, 2012, p. 2).  This is consistent with Cochran-Smith & Lytle (1990), who believe that  “[t]hose who have daily access, extensive expertise, and a clear stake in improving classroom practice have no formal way to make their knowledge of classroom teaching and learning part of the literature on teaching” (p.2).  Understanding teachers as “uniquely positioned” (Cochran-Smith, 1990; Goswami & Stillman, 1987) to detect patterns in the classroom that others might not recognize (Hubberman, 1996), it is not a surprise that teacher research has developed as a meaningful contributor to research (e.g., Atwell 1987; Miller 2002).

The European Commission on Teaching (2013) recognizes that “[f]or teacher education systems to enable all teachers to acquire and develop the competences they need … stimulating teachers’ active engagement in career-long learning and competence development, in effective ways (p. 34).  Communities of practice are one way to bring together "groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis” (Wenger et al., 2002, p. 4). If there is a positive dynamic within the community teacher motivation and learning can increase. 

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