Dear Shaikha,

i am pleased to hear from you and many thanks for such approach.

I am from Oman and the idea of teacher researcher has not yet been
introduced , thats why i am so interested in the topic!!.

i have red alot about this country and supprise from the huge support
for teachers to under take research and i hope to plan good veiws
about the theme when i am back home.

as i know from you that teacher researcher is not a new topic in
Kuwait ,since you and colleague have done some in your schools, this
is great.

i would like to know more about your experience back home regarding
reflective practitioner.

thanks

fatma

On 03/03/2008, Al-Ghanem, Shaikhah <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>
> Dear Fatma, Sarah and All;
>
> I am a PhD student from Kuwait studying at the IOE\ University of London. I
> am glad to hear from someone in the Arabian Gulf region interested in this
> exciting movement. I have just joined the list, and I am glad that I did!
>
>  I, like you, got very excited in the idea of  practitioner research and
> found it relevant and indeed necessary  to bring change and development in
> our schools ( this was part of my interst in Stenhouse's  ideias in  An
> introduction to Curriculum Research and development,  and then the growing
> literature on action research.
>
> My own experience in conducting action research project with teachers in my
> field study 2003-2005, was daunting, but don't be let down, it was and still
> a worthwhile and exciting because it was  real !   I encountered action
> research and asked teachers to do research on their own practices ( since
> they were working on developing a new curriculum which is similar to the
> PHSE in the UK) . There were inherently some methodological and ethical
> contradictions; I struggled in  presenting  action research with its
> practical orientation, with the conventional way of doing   a PhD thesis and
> that made me ethically disturbed. Teachers and I were learning according to
> our individual realms and at the same time we were able to  communicate and
> share our reflections in an attempt to understand What is Al-Ru'yah ? ( the
> name of the new curriculum which literally means vision).
>
>  You will find out that most teachers may become interested in the idea of
> researching their own practices , but  they will use it and use you
> according to their various needs , and I think that this is a success and
> one of its potentials. For instance, in my case teachers did not accept the
> idea of writing down and sharing their individual reflections through
> "journals" as it commonly used here in the UK. However, when I suggested
> using videorecording - I was using it as the discusions in the seminars and
> workshops were one source of data-  and shared my thoughts about this
> experience. Immediatley, they started to experiment video-recording their
> individual lessons. They were assured that  videos are  their individual
> properties and no one have the right to use them without their agreement. Of
> course this was somewhat a costly way of reflection, but the school
> administration was willing to do so and offered two videocameras.
> Interestingly, teachers were already in the "reflection" process by the
> moment they accepted to start  video-recording because decision-making and
> selection of "which class,  which lesson, and most importantly why framed
> the way they chose to reflect. The  video-recording brought changes in
> teacher's attitudes toward thier work: some of them placed  the camera in
> certain position in their classroom, others asked a colleague or even a
> student to do so.
>
> Reflection in its own,  is powerful and indeed new. Unlike the context here
> in the UK,  the term "reflection" is rarely used  in relation to
> professional development or educational context. Reflection is an
> internally- driven  process  for  professional development, and
> "professional development" in our country, I would say, is usually applied
> as an externally- driven process ; developing through the "transmission of
> knowledge from the knowledgeable and expert to the less knowledgeable!
> teachers are trapped within a  hierarchal school system and if we want
> teacher research to strive we need to  work on developing a culture of
> learning based on the idea that schools needs to develop as  "communities
> of learners".
>
> You will be empowered and will observe "growth" in your own learning ,
> simply because teacher research is responsive, flexible and creative!  it
> will  help you , as it did with me ,  understand why our educational system
> despite the huge amount of money spend on educational developments do not
> bring genuine changes in classroom practices.  Teacher research shoudl be
> realised within as embarking a differnt way of thinking and not merely a
> method  or a trend in doing research.( I know that there is an emerging
> interest in action research in two Arabic countries  but as I observe it ,
> it is being used by mentors as a tool to help new teachers to comply with
> the exciting policies without questioning)
>
> I would encourage you to "invest" in your presence here in the UK , the
> practitioner research movement  is very vibrant and active and I am really
> in debt for all those who took  the initiative to facilitate the resources
> and the form of access of  information and communicating for teachers. It is
> very important to keep in touch with supportive community , and I hope we
> can do that for our teachers in our schools and  schools in the World.
>
>
>
> Shaikha Al-ghanim
>
>
>
>
>