ABSTRACT
Through working alongside children in a primary school class on the tasks they were set, and discussing these with them as part of an action research project, Gregson describes her developing understanding of what was involved in children finding information in library books. The few edited collections of research done by teachers (for example, Ainscow, 1989; Lomax, 1991a; Webb, 1990)—much of which was conducted in the context of an award-bearing course-demonstrate the potential of teacher research to contribute to teachers’ professional development and to effect changes in classroom practice. There have been very few systematic research enquiries as yet, which aim to investigate the relationships between teacher research and changes in school practice using a broad sample of teacher researchers. The impetus for the study reported here developed from an earlier small-scale research project based upon tape-recorded interviews with each of the eighteen teachers completing the first University of York Outstation MA Programme in Cleveland (UK) 1983-85 (see Webb, 1988). The programme, which consists of part-time and research-based courses of two years’ duration, has since been completed by a further eleven cohorts from a variety of LEAs. The aim of the programme is to enable teachers to address their own concerns and the practical problems of their schools within the context of a higher degree. Teachers are recruited in teams and their proposed research projects are supported by their headteachers. The courses are sponsored by LEAs, they are taught in local teachers’ centres and supervisions are conducted in participants’ schools.
