ABSTRACT
In England the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) has developed the Postgraduate Professional Development (PPD) progamme to ensure teachers’ learning and development after initial teacher training. The TDA is providing funding for 31,000 training opportunities for teachers in England by 2008. Fifty-seven different providers/consortia will run programmes for the PPD. In order to receive funding from the TDA, there must be a research element to the award bearing courses at master’s (M) level or above leading to postgraduate certificates, diplomas, masters’ and doctorates. In addition, the General Teaching Council for England (GTCe) builds enquiry into all of its teacher
learning academy work. The National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth (NAGTY), the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA), Creative Partnerships, and the National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics (NCETM) all offer research awards to teachers, thus seriously increasing the scale and status of teacher research beyond the PPD programme. With so many teachers researching, questions of ethics and ethical guidelines will arise including the importance and rights of the individuals involved. These individuals will include the researcher, colleagues and parents. Children will inevitably be participants in the research.
