[NLA] Practitioner-based research

[George E. Demetrion]

Teacher Research : A Definition

"Systematic intentional inquiry generally emerging from problems of
practice:  felt discrepancies between intention and reality,
theory/research and practice; reflexive and referenced to the immediate
context" Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1993).  Inside/Outside:  Teacher
Research and Knowledge (pp. 23, 12, fusing quotes)

Eileen, Nancy, Andrea, Art, others!

My understanding is that the basis upon which practitioner-based research
emerges is critical reflection on experience--a desire to better
understand it or/and a desire to resolve some perplexity toward the
construction of something more viable, whether related to instruction,
training, curriculum development, program management, etc.

Cochran-Smith and Lytle (Inside/Outside:  Teacher Research and Knowledge)
argue (and I agree) that the bridge from critical reflection to teacher
research is crossed by what they refer to as "systematic, intentional
inquiry."  That is, it requires another level of analysis, stemming from
critical reflection, to be viewed as teacher research, in any canonical
sense, that then might gain legitimacy as a practitioner-based academic
discipline as one legitimate aspect of educational research--and such
legitimacy is critical to the long-term viability of practitioner-based
research.

One example of both  incipient and actual  practitioner-based research is
before us on the NLA as folks across the constituency-base critically
reflect on a broad array of important topics and dialogue and sometimes
confront each other within almost like a real-time discussion and very
public format.  That is, we're engaging in forms of practitioner-based
research just by participating in this forum. When we share messages with
others, inject them into other situations we are participating in another
level of critical practitioner-based research.  I've shared some of the
policy-focused posts with my boss who otherwise would not see them and
thereby help to tie national and local contexts.  Many are doing the same
thing.  A more systematic reflection in a formal written format, (which
I'm currently working on, on the politics of adult literacy
assessment/accountability issues) of the NLA threads would be another
example of practitioner-based research, as would utilizing messages for
staff development or coalition-building purposes.  While all of this is
going on to some degree, I believe the potential for highly provocative,
stimulating, important practitioner-based inquiry stemming from the NLA
has yet to be done and the primary resources are right in front of our
eyes.

The other basis for practitioner-based research that is right before us
(so to speak) is our own programs where critical reflection on experience
is an essential aspect of staying in business.  We experience and
participate in this critical intelligence all the time:  in creative
tutoring and classroom encounters, in formal training and staff
development sessions, in informal and spontaneous discussions with
colleagues, in staff meetings, in planning sessions, etc.  Gardner's
multiple intelligences is alive and well in the land of literacy.  While
a certain degree of this secondary reflection has surely been developed,
there is much scope for expansion of such research, though the effort
would need to be deemed legitimate and valuable to push the envelope of
its potential in showing to the world the incredible intricacy of adult
literacy education.

What I'm getting from Eileen's message that surely resonates with my own
understanding, is the importance of being more intentional, deliberate,
systematic, and organized about this and bringing such collective
reflection to another threshold for the purposes of improving practice,
learning from each other, and establishing a research basis, with, for,
and by the field that has its own products, its own on-going forums for
knowledge and information exchange, and its own repositories of knowledge
(archives and archives as a metaphor for knowledge storage).

As stated, a lot of this is going on anyway, though what is still not in
place is a profound formal understanding of  the value of such research
stemming from insiders' knowledge, the mettle of which needs to be tested
within the context of public discourses and linked to broader chains of
knowledge, communicative networks, and ultimately institutions of power
and influence.

George Demetrion
Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford and damned proud of it
sophocles5 at juno.com


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