Relationships of Knowledge and Practice: Teacher Learning in Communities

In this article, we discuss the latest renewal of interest in the U.S. in teacher research and other forms of practitioner inquiry, a movement that is now a little more than a decade old. We argue that part of what makes the current wave of interest a movement and not just the latest educational fad is that teacher research stems from several different, but in some ways compatible, intellectual traditions and educational projects. We identify five major trends that characterize the current U.S. movement: (a) the prominence of teacher research in teacher education, professional development, and school reform; (b) the development of conceptual frameworks and theories of teacher research; (c) the dissemination of teacher research beyond the local level; (d) the emergence of critique of teacher research and the teacher research movement; and (e) the transformative potential of teacher research on some aspects of university culture. Based on our own teacher research experiences and understandings of teacher re...

The Teacher Research Movement: A Decade Later

Members of the editorial board of Action Research responded to the question, `Why action research?' Based on their responses and the authors' own experiences as action researchers, this article examines common themes and commitments among action researchers as well as exploring areas of disagreement and important avenues for future exploration. We also use this opportunity to welcome readers of this new journal and to introduce them to members of the editorial board.

Why Action Research

Over the last 20 years, teacher learning has become one of the most important concerns of the educational establishment. It has been more or less assumed that teachers who know more teach better. This \"simple\" idea has governed multiple efforts to improve education in the arenas of policy, research, and practice by focusing on what teachers know or need to know. In this chapter, we do not question this basic idea. Rather, we point out that within various change efforts, there are radically different views of what \"knowing more\" and \"teaching better'' mean. In other words, there are radically different conceptions of teacher learning, including varying images of knowledge; of professional practice; of the necessary and/or potential relationships that exist between the two; of the intellectual, social, and organizational contexts that support teacher learning; and of the ways teacher learning is linked to educational change and the purposes of schooling. Different conceptions of teacher learning—although not always made explicit—lead to very different ideas about how to improve teacher educa­ tion and professional development, how to bring about school and curricular change, and how to assess and license teachers over the course of the professional life span.

Chapter 8: Relationships of Knowledge and Practice: Teacher Learning in Communities:

Learning and unlearning: the education of teacher educators

As is now well documented, the numbers of children of color, poor children, and children with identified disabilities are on the rise in the United States, and in some places “minority” groups are now the majority of the school population (National Education Goals Panel, 1997). At the same time there is mounting evidence that the present educational system is failing to serve disproportionately large numbers of children who are not part of the mainstream (Christensen & Dorn, 1997; Darling-Hammond, 1995; Kozol, 1991). In response, there have been many calls for reform of public schooling and of teacher education (Banks, 1997; Dilworth, 1998; Rice-Jordan, 1995). A number of scholars have argued that we need teachers (and teacher educators) who enter and remain in the teaching force not to carry on business as usual but to work for social change and social justice (Ayers, Hunt & Quinn, 1998;Cochran-Smith, 1995, 1998;Oakes & Lipton, 1999; Skrtic & Sailor, 1996).

Seeking Social Justice: A Teacher Education Faculty’s Self Study

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) states that students with disabilities are to be provided with a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment (LRE). During the early years of the IDEA, the courts generally deferred to school officials on LRE matters and ruled in favor of more restrictive placements. In some recent cases, however, courts have taken a more activist stance. These decisions may signal a new era in LRE case law. Nineteen years after the passage of P.L. 94–142, the courts may be growing impatient with school officials for not providing less restrictive environments for students with disabilities.

The IDEA's Least Restrictive Environment Mandate: Legal Implications

Using EagleEyes—an electrodes based device for controlling the computer with your eyes—to help people with special needs

Until recently children with very profound disabilities-children who cannot speak and can move only their eyes or head-could be made comfortable, but by and large could not be educated. Assistive technologies now enable them to communicate and to be educated alongside their non-disabled peers. This is a wonderful development. But what is the financial cost? In this paper we look in detail at the costs associated with the education of two children who have used assistive technologies developed at our university and compare them with the educational costs had they not started using the assistive technologies. For these two children the costs of the technologies and special teachers hired are offset by savings from the tuition and transportation of sending them to special schools.

The Effect of Assistive Technology on Educational Costs: Two Case Studies

A dozen people who cannot speak and have very limited voluntary muscle control because of cerebral palsy or traumatic brain injury have tried using a new technology called the Camera Mouse to access the computer Nine of the people were successful, in many cases being able to spell words or run commercial software or access the internet for the first time The Camera Mouse is non-invasive and uses a standard video camera and room lighting to track slight movements of the head or thumb or toe, whatever part of the body a person can control The Camera Mouse acts as a mouse substitute

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Philip DiMattia

Papers

Seeking Social Justice: A Teacher Education Faculty’s Self Study

The IDEA's Least Restrictive Environment Mandate: Legal Implications

Using EagleEyes—an electrodes based device for controlling the computer with your eyes—to help people with special needs

The Effect of Assistive Technology on Educational Costs: Two Case Studies

Early experiences using visual tracking for computer access by people with profound physical disabilities.