ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the ways in which teachers can undertake research into the curriculum for children with learning difficulties. The idea of teachers researching the curriculum may appear rather peripheral, given the range of pressing and competing demands that schools face in the current educational climate. Teachers have a number of advantages over outside researchers when it comes to the investigation of practice in their own school settings. The role of teacher–researcher brings with it certain ethical considerations. Firstly, wherever evaluative research goes beyond personal and subjective practice to that of other people, then it is evident that teachers must be alert to the potential sensitivities that can be involved. Direct observation allows a researcher to gather evidence about overt behaviour. Interviews and questionnaires allow researchers to ask people directly for information. The information may be of a factual, knowledge-based kind, or it may also include feelings, attitudes and perceptions.
