Teacher Researchers: Change Agents at Work

Institute of Education Practitioner Research in Education Conference

Wednesday 18 June 2014, University of Cumbria, Carlisle

Schools and school teachers in the UK are taking an increasing responsibility for the provision of initial teacher education and also of professional development for experienced teachers. Practitioner research, systematic enquiry by teachers in their classrooms and schools, is a key element of successful professional learning for new and experienced teachers and is a proven strategy for driving school improvement.

This year’s annual conference proved to be a professional development day packed with opportunities to help teachers and those training teachers to develop their skills in practitioner research. It drew on many practical examples of teachers and teacher educators carrying out classroom research; outlining methods, issues and solutions. It proved to be a powerful professional development activity with opportunities for networking.

Professor Jack Whitehead, our keynote speaker’s high profile international status has been hard earned through his long-standing personal contribution to supporting educational practitioner researchers. If you have an interest in practitioner research that is reflexive and values-based then you will find his keynote thought-provoking and engaging. Jack developed ‘living theory’ research methodology which is now increasingly adopted internationally by practitioners across a range of professional fields. Jack’s website has many examples of living theory research.

Jack’s keynote is available to download.

With Jack’s support we already have some PhD students here at Cumbria using living theory approaches and we are keen to continue this development.

The conference programme also included several teacher researchers who have completed our MA in Education or are involved in collaborative research and development projects. We were also particularly pleased to welcome our international presenters from Belgium, Denmark and the USA.