Teacher as Researcher: An Impetus for Change

Abstract

Most teachers teach the way they were taught or in a way that is compatible with their learning style. Any changes they make are usually superficial; rarely do teachers change their underlying pedagogical beliefs and assumptions. This reflective paper, written from a constructivist perspective, illustrates the importance of collaborative research in stimulating teacher change. Based on a longer ethnographic autobiography, it details the personal story of how a teacher-as-researcher project helped one teacher overcome the effects of professional isolation, and altered the teacher’s beliefs from an objectivist set of beliefs based on technical interests to a more constructivist perspective based on students’ emancipatory interests. The article concludes with a set of assertions for facilitating teacher change in a collaborative research model.