Reclaiming the Intellect, Owning Our Learning

This phrase captures my thoughts today on research method limitations and their effect on teacher inquiry. The philosophy underlying quantitative research assumes that if the method is appropriate, the results will be generalizable to other settings. In other words, an expert can tell you from studying a large enough sample elsewhere, what you should be doing in your school. However, in education, few practices can be imported to a new setting with dependably reliable results. So much is at play in how teachers understand any given innovation and whether it corresponds with their existing beliefs. The degree and quality of implementation can vary widely, based on local conditions. So perhaps the whole assumption that others can generate knowledge that we, as educators, implement blindly, is to be questioned.

However, the quantitative research tradition has mystified the tools for knowledge construction and made them inaccessible to teachers trying to turn observations into knowledge into their own classrooms and schools. Last summer I heard about a school improvement book that I have mean meaning to order, about teachers "reclaiming the intellect". In order for this reclaiming to occur, and for teachers to become critical thinkers about their own professional actions, I think researchers need to legitimize rather than undermine professional inquiry. The ways that teachers make informed instructional decisions needs to be articulated and validated and not dismissed as "unreliable" or "anecdotal". Only then will teachers own their learning and have the confidence to critique it for themselves.

Why is this troubling me now? I've been helping so many students develop inquiry projects and research proposals and there is always so much that must be written about the limitations of the method, an academic tradition.However, one colleague, an expert in narrative research, insists that we should never apologize for our method. I hope there will come a time when the opportunities or affordances of a qualitative research method, such as professional inquiry, are richly understood and appreciated and the limitations are acknowledged in a way that doesn't limit teachers' ability to think.