39.7 The Action Research Project in South Africa
In 2004, the South African Government introduced a Revised National Curriculum,
which was a second attempt to reform the national curriculum after criticism of the
first. A generic five-day training was introduced and the whole approach was
underpinned by‘a positive orientation to teacher development’(Robinson and
Soudien 2009 : 475). This included the incorporation of an action research approach
or disposition to problem solving in the curriculum, although explicit development
of the teachers in this area did not form part of the training—‘action research never
explicitly premised or preceded the training that was provided’(p. 473)—it was part
of the plan. Action research and a more democratic approach to teacher involve-
ment were deliberate parts of an attempt to build cohesion and social justice in the
country as part of a reform. Both these initiatives were evaluated so we have data to
draw on.
Both of these initiatives shared the following aims: to facilitate teacher learning:
facilitate curriculum development and to facilitate change in practice. The under-
lying premise is also that of developing teachers as practitioners capable of
reflecting upon enquiring into and creating some new knowledge about their
practice. How did action research as a strategy for bringing about fundamental
change fare against these criteria?
39.8 Action Research as a Vehicle for Teacher Learning
The three characteristics discussed earlier as core to teacher learning were: that it is
a complex dynamic phenomenon; rooted in the context, systems, and in profes-
sional community.
39.8.1 A Complex Dynamic Phenomenon
There was much evidence of the dynamism of the process and the learning. In the
Kazakhstani example, the teachers reported shifts in their learning, but they were
initially slow and the bigger change occurred in the second year or the second cycle
of the action research, i.e.this is a slow process that requires support and facili-
tation. This is also supported by the work on effective professional development
cited earlier. Evidence shows the need for a continuous, cumulative and planned
process of teacher professional development thatfits with teacher’s own individual
agendas (Cordingley 2015 ). The teachers reported learning about many aspects—
learning about practice, about self as teacher and learner and learning about
research (Chandler-Grevett et al. 2014 ). It was often a gradual movement and did
not progress in a neat linear fashion. In thefirst stages, participants often talked
590 C. McLaughlin