Teachers’ action research and the
generation of knowledge
The Southampton Music Action Research
Project, 2007-08
Tim Cain
UCET Annual Conference, Nov 10, 2009
Not ‘proper research’
• Teachers’ action research tends to exist in the margins (Zeichner, 1995)
• This description rings true in the field of music education.
• ‘I know it’s not proper research but …’ (Clayton & O’Brien et al., 2008).
First Generation research
Positivist and post-positivist
The world can be known objectively
Knowledge is obtained empirically and logically (i.e. by answering questions like
“what are the causes of . . .?”)
Disciplinary roots in psychology
Methods include Randomised, controlled trials; experiments and quasi
experiments, surveys, tests, mostly quantitative
Second Generation research
Interpretativist, constuctivist, phenomenological, hermeneutic
No objective standpoint
Research into lived experience; subjective meanings uncovered by
ethnographical means – disciplinary roots in anthropology
Phenomena studied in contexts
Ethnographies, case studies, “thick description”; mostly qualitative
Third Generation research
Critical theory, action research/practitioner research
Insider research
Aims to change the world by understanding it and vice-versa
Primacy of practical knowledge, supported by experiential, presentational &
propositional knowledge
“the word ‘prove’ does not exist in Action Research” (McNiff, 2002)
Types of action research
• Experimental action research (broadly positivist)
• inductive action research (interpretivist),
• participatory action research (a limited form of participation)
•
participatory research practices (underpinned by critical theory)
• deconstructive action research practice (a postmodernist, anti-essentialist
stance)
• A previous study produced ‘27 different “flavours” of action research’ (Cassell
& Johnson, 2006)
Action research
Plan > act > evaluate (“observe”) > reflect > plan . . . (etc.) spiral
Starts with questions like, “How can I improve what I am doing?” (Whitehead)
A natural extension of a teacher’s work (with emphasis on data & reflection)
Generates experiential, presentational, propositional and practical knowledge
(Heron & Reason, 1997)
Foster (1999): 25 teachers’ studies
• Most studies related to important educational concerns
• reports contained ‘significant omissions and ambiguities’
• ‘researchers appeared unable to distance themselves from their preconceived
views about effective practice’
• insufficient evidence presented to support claims
• significant doubts about the validity of evidence
• ‘a minority … could not be characterized as research’
Furlong & Sainsbury (2005): 100 studies
• taking part in action research was a valuable form of continuing professional
development
• teachers becoming more confident, more knowledgeable, collecting and using
evidence, and learning about their own learning
• For many, the research led to ‘informed reflection’
• impacts on practice: schools, teaching, children and occasionally, parents
• significant impact on the morale
• ‘the outcomes are often hard to disentangle from the development of the
people … not always based on rigorous evidence’
Bartlett & Burton (2006): a research group
• an under-developed use of research conventions, including systematic data
collection and ‘the issue of validity’
• more awareness of the complex nature of what is often treated superficially
during in-service training
• began to seek out the relevant associated literature
• able to evaluate suggested innovations
• Validity ‘strengthened through peer examination and discussion’
Knowledge
• Foster (1999): the production of knowledge is the ‘primary goal’ of research,
which teachers’ action research fails to achieve
• Furlong and Sainsbury (2005): research outcomes are ‘hard to disentangle’
from the teacher-researchers’ professional development.
• Lytle & Cochran-Smith (1998) the knowledge question is, ‘the question that
persists’
Knowledge
• Garvey & Williamson (2002) ‘Big K’ and ‘Little K’ knowledge:
• Big K knowledge develops ‘cumulatively … is consolidated and made explicit
in books, journals and encyclopedias … is passed from one generation to the
next through the institutions of formal education … is no longer the property
of individual minds’, ‘is driven forward by research and development on a
global scale’
• Little K knowledge, ‘is the knowledge that individuals possess for themselves
… [it] reflects their experience of work and understanding … is firmly
anchored in the realm of individual education and experience’
Research
AIM
to investigate how music teachers use educational action research as a
means of improving class music teaching in Secondary schools
QUESTIONS
How do Secondary school music teachers undertake action research?
What knowledge is created in the process?
Action
Nov 1, 2007
Project teachers learnt what action research is, how it is
carried out and how it differs from other sorts of research
Nov – Dec, 2007
Project teachers carried out project in schools
Entered plans into wiki
Jan – Jun, 2008
Projects continued in school
Visit by LA adviser (in some LAs)
Project teachers visits to each other*
Jun 18, 2008
Teachers presented research projects to each other
July 4, 2008
I presented preliminary findings
2 other presentations
Teachers evaluated the project as a whole
*This planned event did not happen
Projects
 Involving TAs by Liz O'Connell: what happened when Teaching
Assistants became involved in planning and teaching music.
 KS3 Composing by Jason Edgell: what happened when Y8 pupils
were given several chances to record their compositions.
 KS3 Feedback by Sarah Moore: how pupils understood the
feedback, given them in music lessons, and how this was
improved.
 GCSE Listening by Nikki Budd: how Y11 pupils used non-musical
stimuli to develop their understanding of music from different
eras.
Projects
 Vocational Relevance by Sally Wilcocks: how music lessons
became more relevant through bringing the music industry into
the classroom.
 Open all hours? by Philip Dowd: how pupils moved from skillsbased learning to ideas-based learning.
 Creative Skills by Rheann Long: how three Y8 pupils became
more creative through imaginative approaches to performing
tasks.
Projects are at www.practitionerresearchinmusiceducation.org
Finding a research problem
•
teachers started by identifying a problem
•
National programmes influenced Philip, Sarah and Rheann and Nikki
•
Whole-school matters influenced Sally, Liz and Jason
The topics chosen by the teachers were about meeting professional expectations, rather
than questioning or opposing such expectations
Structuring the research
•
2 undertook a ‘reconnaissance’ phase, the others did not
•
3 created a plan and implemented it, evaluating the implementation
•
1 had three separate parts, with a single, overarching aim
•
Collaboration: pupil voice, guest speakers, involvement of other adults
•
3 employed a cyclical structure, altering their plans as their projects developed, in
response to their emerging findings.
Data
•
In planning, 2 identified the evidence that might demonstrate improvement
•
Collected data included: questionnaires; interviews; recordings of work; pupils’ written
work; assessments of pupils’ work; photographs & video; observation & diary
•
Awareness of validity issues
Consequences
•
improvements in the quality of pupils’ work
•
improved enjoyment, attendance and engagement in extra-curricular music
•
improved confidence and concentration
•
projects increased teachers’ self-awareness
Reporting
•
Initial plans & reasons written on wiki
•
1 wrote & edited directly to the website
•
1 co-written with me
•
Most gave a verbal presentation which I recorded, transcribed and uploaded
•
All structured as ‘narratives of personal experience’ (Strand, 2009)
•
Considerable interest in each others’ projects (but tended to think of their own
projects as ‘obvious’)
Knowledge
•
Experiential (‘I certainly have a much clearer idea about the strengths and weaknesses
of those students’) and self-awareness
•
Presentational (Liz’s planning document, Rheann’s scaffolding worksheet and Sarah’s
feedback diaries and prompt cards)
•
Propositional (see handout)
•
Practical (demonstrated in teachers’ stories about their teaching, such as Sally
presenting a real-life task as, ‘you are a music producer and you have been sent this
track; you have to mix it and send it back to the band so it gets released’
•
‘Little K’: generated by reflective processes, drew on data, lacked scientific rigour,
stored in narratives of individual experience, not generalisable
Issues to explore
•
Teachers claimed to have learned from each other, (‘listening to others was the best
bit’ and ‘[my project] made a difference, not just to me but to others’)
•
Big K knowledge not always propositional (Kodaly, Orff, Suzuki)
•
How might knowledge, generated by teachers’ action research, become ‘Big K’?
How do Secondary school music
teachers undertake action research?
The Southampton Music Action Research
Project, 2007-08
Tim Cain: t.cain@soton.ac.uk
Nov 9, 2009
Teachers’ action research and the
generation of knowledge
The Southampton Music Action Research
Project, 2007-08
Tim Cain
UCET Annual Conference, Nov 10, 2009