Chapter 39
Researching Practice as Education
and Reform
Colleen McLaughlin
39.1 Introduction
This chapter explores the use of action research as part of formal policy makers’
plans to implement change in education and begins by looking at past writings on
this. It draws on work in reforming teacher education and teacher practices in
Kazakhstan, South Africa and the UK. It shows how action research is well suited
to developing teachers’learning and practice. It makes the case for engaging
teachers in researching practices as part of reform attempts and shows the impact of
this process on teachers’conceptions of themselves as teachers and on the process
of teaching and learning. It details the emotional and professional challenges and
the necessary supports needed if this process is to be as powerful as it might be.
39.2 The Union of Change and Action Research
The idea of linking action research to change is, to state the obvious, not a new one.
Many would argue that action research has the notion of change conceptually
embedded. Many key titles encapsulate the idea of action research as an educational
change process, and contain the words action, research and change. Somekh ( 2009 )
articulates these connections well when she points out that action research is a
methodology that suits those social scientists researching innovation and that, in
particular the knowledge generated‘has the capacity to transform social practices,’
and can help those involved in educational change‘gain access to the intimate and
C. McLaughlin (&)
University of Cambridge, England, UK
e-mail: [email protected]
©Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017
M.A. Peters et al. (eds.),A Companion to Research in Teacher Education,
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-4075-7_39
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