 |
 |
David writes: The problem isn't with validity or rigour. It's getting people started in the first place with down-to-earth teacher-led classroom-based action research that's going to inform our practice. It's also about finding a medium where such research might be published. Sadly, that's not the kind of research I see in the journals I peruse when I pop into my local university library. That kind I can admire because it's rigorous, evidence-based and statistics-supported. The authors have read the literature and are able to quote from the different schools of opinion. Sadly, though, such articles are a far cry from the raw, untutored report of a teacher who has managed, say, to get through to an autistic child after months of patient relationship-building. Hi David - You might like to look at the four volumes of Passion in Professional Practice you can access from the front page of http://www.actionresearch.net I'm thinking particularly of Volume Three at: http://schools.gedsb.net/ar/passion/pppiii/index.html With section Two on Special Needs accounts and section Three on Autism. The team in the Grand Erie District School Board in Ontario, coordinated by Jacqueline Delong, a Superintendent of Schools, understands the significance of getting practitioner-research started, as you suggest. The professional development programmes in the GEDSB described in these four volumes also show how ideas in an untutored report can, with tutoring, be greatly improved in the next report. Developing such a culture of inquiry to support these professional development programmes took some 5 years of sustained effort. The Doctorate of Jacqueline Delong, also accessible from the frontpage of actionresearch.net, provides the evidence of such improvement and sustained commitment. Do please have a look at The Ontario Action Researcher at: http://www.nipissingu.ca/oar/ for a forum that has been publishing such accounts since 1998 Love Jack