Within the labyrinth: Facilitating teacher research groups

Abstract: The purpose of this research study is to examine my four year role as a facilitator of twelve teacher research groups throughout British Columbia. I examined facilitated teacher research groups as one pathway to engendering educational reform. My thesis is that, without the external voice of the facilitator, contexts for pedagogical dialogue have the possibility of becoming nothing more than a retelling of incidents that occur consistently in the dailiness of teaching. Without the external facilitator, teacher research groups may become rooted in process at the expense of substance. The rigorous conversations and the rethinking of practice may be in jeopardy of being replaced by sessions in which teachers are emotionally and socially supported, yet changes in practice are not viewed as vital.

This research study focuses on problematic aspects, tensions, and perplexing questions that emerged in my practice as a facilitator for teacher research groups. These dilemmas included grappling with the colleague/expert dichotomy, "contrived" collegiality, unexamined practitioner constructions of knowledge, and prodding practitioners to move beyond the seductive peril of retelling of their own stories to take action towards rethinking and subsequently changing their own practice.

Teachers viewed my role as facilitator as important because it contributed an external perspective which focused practitioners on what made a difference to student learning. As a facilitator I needed to create a framework for teacher research groups which provided teachers with time to talk and work collaboratively in a trusting environment and to ensure teachers' process of inquiry began in the action of their practice. The facilitator ensures practitioners also face their dilemmas of practice, otherwise the possibility exists that change may not be framed around the needs of learning and the learner. Without the external voice, provided by the facilitator, teacher research groups might not connect to educational reform, nor might they have any focused impact on student learning. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
 

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