ABSTRACT
This chapter explores ways to bridge the separation that currently exists between the worlds of teacher research and academic research. On the one hand, many teachers currently feel that educational research conducted by those in the academy is largely irrelevant to their lives in schools. On the other hand, many academics dismiss the knowledge produced through teacher research as trivial and inconsequential to their work. I argue that our vision of educational research should include both knowledge produced by teachers and knowledge produced by those in the academy. Our vision should take the position that the processes of teacher development, school reform, and teacher education can greatly benefit from occasions when knowledge crosses the divide that currently separates teacher knowledge from academics, and academic knowledge from teachers. I discuss two specific examples that illustrate instances in which academic knowledge and teacher knowledge have improved teaching, as well as the assumptions regarding voice, power, ownership, and status which make them successful cases. One case deals with the teaching of mathematics in elementary school; the other is concerned with the teaching of language minority students. I also discuss several ways in which knowledge produced by teachers and others who work in schools can potentially benefit academic research and teacher education programs in colleges and universities.
