This document summarizes a study on school-based teacher action research. It finds that teacher participation in action research projects provides valuable professional development by helping teachers reflect on their practice, articulate tacit knowledge, and implement changes in their classrooms. Challenges include finding time and navigating expectations about research. Preliminary results show benefits like increased confidence and status for teachers, as well as a more open culture around research in some schools. The author plans to continue data collection and explore models for supporting teacher research.

1. School-Based Teacher Action Research
What are we learning?
Brian Marsh University of Brighton

2. Teachers as
Researchers
University of
Brighton
Introduction
• In amongst the plethora of changes / noise regarding teaching in England is
the mantra teaching being an “evidence-informed / research-based
profession”
• Not new …
 Best Practice Research Scholarships
 National College for School Leadership (2004) … “We know that when teachers are
engaged in actively researching and enquiring about existing practice, processes
and outcomes with teachers … they are more likely to improve their own analytical
thinking and … to generate network-wide knowledge that can have a direct impact
on the children in classrooms across all schools”
• Today we have
 Increasing dissatisfaction with CPD which is whole school led and focused often on
issues of performativity
 increasing involvement of teachers in
o Teachmeets … teachers sharing aspects of practice
o Conferences such as ResearchEd
 Some schools trying to develop a research informed culture … including action
research / practitioner enquiry projects

3. Teachers as
Researchers
University of
Brighton
Literature
Investigating teachers as researchers brings with it the
challenge that this is a contested issue (Carr, 2007; Elliott,
2001).
Reported benefits which are worth further exploration …
• teacher learning which include those changes to an
individual teacher’s practice (Kemmis, 2009)
• potential to enhance reflective practice thus leading to an
increasing capacity to make appropriate judgements in the
classroom (Wilson, 2013)
• helps teachers learn about teaching and identify things that
work (Furlong, Salisbury, & Coombs, 2003)
• supports tacit knowledge being made explicit and
articulated through dialogue and reflection (Wilson, 2013)
• affective benefits include the altering of teachers’ values
and working practices along with pre-conceived
understandings of practice (Leat et al., 2015)

4. Teachers as
Researchers
University of
Brighton
The Project
The programme comprises 3 inter-linked phases, each
approximating in length to 1 school term:
• Phase 1 – exploratory phase comprising an introduction to
action research, peer-supported discussion of the issues to
be investigated,
• Phase 2 – implementation phase including discussion of
research methods and ethics and data gathering
• Phase 3 – concluding phase including summary and
dissemination
Term 1
Sept-Dec
• Identify issue
to be explored
• Reading – find
out what is
already known
• Have teaching
on the nature
of action
research
Term 2
Jan-Apr
• Have teaching
on methods,
data
collection,
ethics
• Planning
• Start of data
gathering
• One-to-one
support
Term 3
Apr-July
• Conclude data
gathering
• Short write-up
of project
• Presentation
of findings
(e.g staff
meeting,
Teachmeet
etc)

5. Teachers as
Researchers
University of
Brighton
Examples of Projects
• Teacher disposition – The Growth Mindset Teacher
• Developing a ‘Rights Respecting Culture’
• Threshold concepts in Chemistry
• The effective use of TAs in school
• Evaluation of subject specific interventions
• Several projects around ‘closing the gap’ for pupil premium
pupils
• Use of cognates
• Memory retention and recall
• Transition (Year 67) – impact of summer programmes

6. Teachers as
Researchers
University of
Brighton
Initial Findings – Common to All Three groups
• 15 / 16 spoke of engagement with literature … both practitioner
and peer-reviewed … valued and appreciated – made time to do
so
• Issues with literature for teachers ...
 Access and understanding how to read peer-reviewed literature
 The relative importance of different types of literature
 Struggle when the research evidence conflicts with widely held
teacher beliefs and practice
• 14 / 16 spoke of value of …
 discussing their project in school / alliance group and the
resultant peer feedback … both led to shaping both thinking
and their enactment of project
 discussion of teaching and learning … both arising from their
own projects but others in the group ... exploration, articulation
and reflection of tacit knowledge
 sense of struggle in developing ideas and undertaking project

7. Teachers as
Researchers
University of
Brighton
Initial Findings – Common to All Three groups
Impact was variable:
• individual practices being changed (15 / 16 responses)
• 2 instances a change in whole-school policy
Other impacts were
• on school environment (school leader) … “It is a ripple effect - it
has made it OK to talk about practice and research”
• ephemeral personal benefits … increased self-esteem / getting
quality feedback / receiving praise when giving short
presentations to other staff

8. Teachers as
Researchers
University of
Brighton
Initial Findings – School A
Pilot year … 3 teachers
Project year 1... 5 teachers
Project year 2 ... 6 teachers
Participants enabled to choose own project … one school
leader spoke of “long term commitment and professional trust
… we wanted to give them ownership”
• 7 / 8 reported changes to their practice
• All 8 valued the opprtunity to do an extended investigation
on issues they had been previously thinking about
• 7 / 8 commented on the personal ownership of own
professional development
• Data from project year 2 still to be completely gathered and
analysed

9. Teachers as
Researchers
University of
Brighton
Initial Findings – School B
• 7 participating teachers and 1 school leader
• Initial interviews have already taken place … exploration of
why they wanted to engage with practitioner research
• Some final interviews
• Project ...
 School A & TSA participated in an academic year (2015-
2016) whereas School B is participating in a calendar
year (2016)
 Disjointed ... Both time and momentum were lost around
school exam season (May – June) which should have
been a critical point in their practitioner enquiry ... also
lost some participants through moving on to new
positions in September

10. Teachers as
Researchers
University of
Brighton
Initial Findings – Teaching School Alliance
• Middle level leaders drawn from 3 secondary schools, 1 primary
and 1 special school in a teaching school alliance
• Used by the TSA as an alternative form of middle level leader
training to NPQML which had previously been undertaken
• Unstated expectation was that they would undertake enquiry
directed to their roles in driving forward school improvement
 Sense of their personal agency being reduced
 Although never explicitly instructed to so they all articulated a
sense of being expected to respond to performativity issues in
their own school
 Not all undertook enquiries in areas they would personally have
chosen had they been given free choice
 Corresponds to Hammersley’s (2004) point of some action
research being a contradiction
• More problematic and more complex to undertake AR with
narrower projects all relating performativity (either intervention to
raise exam performance or ‘closing the gap’ with pupil premium
pupils)

11. Teachers as
Researchers
University of
Brighton
Emerging Themes
• Value of
 external support / critical friend to support the research
 School-based communities of practice … peer-support
• Professional learning
 taking part in action research was a valuable form of
continuing professional development
 for many, the research led to ‘informed reflection’
• Impact on schools
• Professional capital
• Agency - teachers becoming more confident, more
knowledgeable, collecting and using evidence, and learning
about their own learning
• Personal disposition
• Challenge of the ‘difficult project’

12. Teachers as
Researchers
University of
Brighton
Challenges Faced By Teacher-Researchers
Time
Access to Literature
• Getting access to peer-reviewed research / syntheses of research
• Relative authority of different types of literature (particularly social media and
teacher blogs)
Expectations
• Initial expectations of potential impact once the enquiry question was determined
were vastly over-estimated
• Some teacher-researchers appeared unable to distance themselves from their
preconceived views about effective practice
Understanding of Research
• Paradigms
• Iterative cycles of action research … some thought they would get instant answers
• Use of multiple methods and triangulation of data
• Ethics including issues arising from insider research
• Validity and generalisability

13. Teachers as
Researchers
University of
Brighton
Conclusions … tentative at this stage
For the participants ... Engaged in a process that has given them
ownership and some personal control over their professional
development ... a professional development that appears to lead to:
 Learning how to think about practice and articulate tacit
knowledge
 Increased reflection-on-action
 Changes in their classroom / departmental practice
 Increased ephemeral benefits including raising their status in
schools ... increased professional capital
 These teachers being in a ‘struggle zone’ – their learning
paralleling the learning of their pupils
 An increasing desire for evidence-informed practice ... doing it
because we’ve always done it this way and ‘tips for teachers’ /
toolbox approaches no longer will do
For Schools ... The project
• Leading to a greater openness to research
• Ripple effect ... positively affecting the ethos of the schools
• Occasional change in whole-school policy and practice

14. Teachers as
Researchers
University of
Brighton
Future Work
This Project
• Complete the programme including data collection in school B
• Revisit teachers from school A (Years 1 & 2) & the TSA (Year 1)
to explore any lasting impact … extend into further year for both
• Explore if there is any difference from doing such practitioner
enquiry in own school compared to doing it as part of a
programme across a TSA
Developments
Working with schools in 3 different frameworks:
• Bespoke modules delivered in school for PGDip  MA
• Non-accredited framework as this project ... appropriately costed
• Specific sessions from non-accredited framework as this project
... appropriately costed
Brian Marsh – University of Brighton
@brianmarsh52