Dear Steve/All

Good to hear from you again.  I am very grateful for your posting and happy to
have a go at responding. It's late, I am tired but tomorrow is busy and I want
to reply as best I can before I lose the thread of my thoughts and because,
also, it might be helpful to others to see how (and that) I try to engage:
Again very much personal views but I am trying to be as honest as I can be...

re. 'In response to the original two extracts at the start of this piece I would
ask:

How has the reading of this publication influenced your learning and
understanding and in appreciating the educational influence of this text?'

* I realised that I'd outgrown many of the assumptions I had once held firmly
to while I was a lecturer in the next door office to Jack.  The stimulus to
challenge Jack's writings came from my viva voce examination in November 2003
(wrong criteria used by examiners - appeal - thesis still unexamined in 2005!)
The examiners asked why I was so accepting of what Jack said about that self
study action research IS the only form of action research. I started thinking!

* I also realised, contentedly, that my ideas-in-practice in furthering action
research mentoring come from my experience of working with Jack. Seeing some
students he tutored foundering I developed an integration of a mentoring style
rooted in my experience of initial teacher training and enquiries of the kind
How can I assist you to improve (our collaborative) practice? to help them
persevere through the early stages of practitioner research when attrition can
rates soar.  I passionately wanted & want teachers to love to be researchers!

* I realised that Jack and Jean's book won't be the much hoped for text that I
can recommend for novice teacher researchers. I realised that I already had
many of the resources that I need thanks to Jean's downloadable A/R booklet,
the internet and my colleague Steve Coombs' Critical Thinking Scaffolds ...

* I realised that I need to make writing a text for novice teacher researchers a
priority now - in the same way that when I wrote Mentoring in School (2000) I
created the resource I couldn't quite find and ditto my website at TR.net

* I realised that it was Jack's Being not so much his writing inspired my
early work towards a conceptualisation of A/research mentoring for teachers -
as I read the book I could hear Jack and Jean speaking and I re-experienced the
sense of concern I felt reported by some of my PGCE students who read Jack's
work - they want/needed a much simpler and more straightforward text.

re. how can you engage with it in order to influence the authors and others?

* at http://www,TeacherResearch.net I am assisting in a small way in creating a
resource bacnk for teacher researchers - one aspect of that is the section that
relates to reviews of books and website relevant to teacher researchers.

Time and money is short in UK schools for initiating and supporting teacher
research - only today a teacher wrote to me (off list) to say that teachers
don't research because there is no funding - in my reviews I say very clearly
that it is a personal perspective. I want to enable teachers to consider which
books they might usefully spend time and money on and which they might not ...
in this review for example I point out the websites that might be more useful
It's a personal view and in this case, a very personal view, but I hope useful

I don't hold with academics being beyond question - I don't like ivorytowerism
I have learnt that the impetus to publish isn't always rooted in a desire to
share knowledge  - it can be rooted in greed and in over anxiety about RAEs!
How I review is just as important as that I research - you'll see in teachers'
websites which represent their enquiries - I encourage critique of my work.

They're are still not finished and unspell checked but do look and enjoy them!
- they arrived just today - offered tentatively with a cautious 'Are they OK?'

http://www.cfkeep.org/html/snapshot.php?id=51952540922866
http://www.cfkeep.org/html/snapshot.php?id=40142960511281

* as I read them (full of admiration) I reflect on how a book might be created
to assist teacher researchers working alone or who are unsure what AR can do.
I need a book as research mentor to helps me to help teachers research better

* finally I hope that my review enables Jack and Jean to write a better text in
future - you will see from my review that I regard their previous writings
highly, less so this work. We can all improve and I hope my review helps this.

I am not setting myself as an expert but I'm trying to use my experience as a
school teacher for almost 23 years plus my experience as a university lecturer
to assist teacher researchers in getting their research engaged with by other
teachers, by university-based researchers and by policy makers. No mean task!

Kind regards
Sarah

PS I am grateful for others' feedback so far too. I need to consider issues
Brian raised earlier PLUS how Jack and Jean suggest critical engagement with
relevant literature in teacher research accounts of their classroom practice.
-- 
Sarah Fletcher
http://www.TeacherResearch.net