English Teaching: Practice and Critique
From the basement of the ivory tower: English teachers as collaborative researchers
Volume 4 Number 2 September 2005
Arthur Firkins (The Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University-Sydney)
Cherry Wong (TWGHs Mr and Mrs Kwong Sik Kwan College)
This article reports on both writers' experiences
as participants in a collaborative action research project in Hong
Kong. The article draws a distinction between teachers as research
consumers and teachers as research producers. The authors suggest that
active teacher agency in research is a positive element in the
professional development of English teachers. Teachers primarily
become research producers through involvement in some form of action
research project. Although action research is increasingly recognized
as a teacher competency in Hong Kong, it is nevertheless difficult for
teachers to initiate and conduct when research is not seen as a core
professional activity by their school with subsequent limited support.
The authors view collaboration with professional researchers as a
positive way for teachers to be apprenticed into the research process.
The article ends by suggesting possible strategies that would support
and encourage teachers to undertake research.