Research as praxis, en route theory/practice teacher-researcher collaboration: a self-study

Authors

  • Sharada Gade

Abstract

This paper relates to project related instructional interventions, conducted via teacher-researcher collaboration in a Grade Four mathematics classroom. Drawing upon cultural historical activity theory or CHAT perspectives, such conduct exemplifies research as praxis. While CHAT perspectives argue for a theory/practice approach, enabling practitioners to act on their reflexivity and address contradictions found in ongoing practice; research as praxis views practitioner reflexivity as central to pursuing openly ideological work and practising in empirical inquiry what one preaches in theoretical formulations. Such pursuit led to our becoming stakeholders in each other’s professional practice and the conduct of interventions becoming the shared object of both teaching and research. In teacher-researcher collaboration realising expansive learning activity, it was possible to question modernist assumptions which view abstract theory as applicable to any concrete practice and take political action in dialectic with theory.

References

Arbaugh, F., Herbel-Eisenmann, B., Ramirez, N., Knuth, E., Kranendonk, H. & Reed Quander, J. (2010). Linking research and practice: the NCTM research agenda conference report. Reston: NCTM.

Blomqvist, C. & Gade, S. (2013). Att kommunicera om likamedtecknet. Nämnaren, 2013 (4), 39-42.

Bullough Jr, R. V. & Pinnegar, S. (2001). Guidelines for quality in autobio- graphical forms of self-study research. Educational Researcher, 30 (3), 13-21. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X030003013

Burton, L. (2002). Methodology and methods in mathematics education research: where is "the why"? In S. Goodchild & L. English (Eds.), Researching mathematics classrooms: a critical examination of methodology (pp. 1-10). Westport: Information Age Publishing. https://doi.org/10.5040/9798216007920.0006

Chaiklin, S. (1993). Understanding the socio-scientific practice of understanding practice. In J. Lave & S. Chaiklin (Eds.), Understanding practice: perspectives on activity and context (pp. 377-401). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511625510.015

Chaiklin, S. (2011). The role of practice in cultural-historical science. In M. Kontopodis, C. Wul. & B. Fichtner (Eds.), Children, development and education: cultural, historical, anthropological perspectives (pp. 227-246). Dordrecht: Springer.

Clandinin, D. J. &Connelly, F. M. (2007). Knowledge, narrative and self-study. In J. Loughran et al. (Eds.), International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices (pp. 575-600). Dordrecht: Springer.

D'Ambrosio, B., Martin, D. B., Frankestein, M., Moshkovitch, J., Gutierrez, R. et al. (2013). Positioning oneself in mathematics education research. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 44 (1), 11-22. https://doi.org/10.5951/jresematheduc.44.1.0011

Edwards, A., Gilroy, P. & Hartley, D. (2002). Rethinking teacher education: collaborative responses to uncertainty. Cornwall: RoutledgeFalmer.

Engeström, Y. (2001). Expansive learning at work: toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization. Journal of Education and Work, 14 (1), 133-156. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080020028747

Engeström, Y. (2008). The future of activity theory: a rough draft. Keynote presented at the ISCAR conference, San Diego. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511809989.020

Etherington, K. (2006). Reflexivity: using our 'selves' in narrative research. In S. Trahar (Ed.), Narrative research on learning: comparative and international perspectives (pp. 77-92). Oxford: Symposium Books.

Fay, B. (1977). How people change themselves: the relationship between critical theory and it's audience. In T. Ball (Ed.), Political theory and praxis: new perspectives (pp. 200-233). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Feldman, A. (2005). Using an existential form of reflection to understand my transformation as a teacher educator. In C, Kosnik, C. Beck, A. R. Frees. & A. P. Samaras (Eds.), Making a difference in teacher education through self-study: studies of personal, professional and program renewal (pp. 35-49). Dordrecht: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3528-4_3

Gade, S. (2010a). Cooperation and collaboration as zones of proximal development within the mathematics classroom. Nordic Studies in Mathematics Education, 15 (2), 49-68.

Gade, S. (2010b). Narratives of students learning mathematics: plurality of strategies and a strategy for practice? In C. Bergsten, E. Jablonka & T. Wedege (Eds.), Mathematics and mathematics education: cultural and social dimensions. Proceedings of MADIF7 (pp. 102-112). Linköping: SMDF.

Gade, S. (2011a). Narrative as unit of analysis for teaching-learning praxis and action: tracing the personal growth of a professional voice. Reflective Practice, 12 (1), 35-45. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2011.541092

Gade, S. (2011b). Researcher reflexivity leading to action research in a mathematics classroom - enabling Nelly to multiply again through deconstruction and reconstruction. Paper presented at the ISCAR congress , Rome. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-37788

Gade, S. (2012a). Teacher researcher collaboration at a grade four mathematics classroom: restoring equality to students usage of the '=' sign. Educational Action Research, 20 (4), 553-570. https://doi.org/10.1080/09650792.2012.727644

Gade, S. (2012b). Close-to-practice classroom research by way of Vygotskian units of analysis. Paper presented at ICME-12 (TSG21, Research on classroom practice), Seoul. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu: diva-51993

Gade, S. (2015a). Teacher-researcher collaboration as formative intervention and expansive learning activity. In K. Krainer & N. Vondrova (Eds.), Proceedings of the ninth congress of european research in mathematics education (CERME9) (pp. 3029-3035). Prague: Charles University & ERME.

Gade, S. (2015b). Unpacking teacher-researcher collaboration with three theoretical frameworks - a case of expansive learning activity? Cultural Studies of Science Education, 10 (3), 603-619. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-014-9619-7

Gade, S. (2016). Oneself in practitioner research, with Vygotsky and Bakhtin. Reflective Practice, 17 (4), 403-414. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2016.1169166

Gade, S. & Blomqvist, C. (2015). From problem posing to posing problems by way of explicit mediation in grades four and five. In F. M. Singer, N. Ellerton & J. Cai (Eds.), Mathematical problem posing: from research to effective practice (pp. 195-213). New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6258-3_9

Gade, S. & Blomqvist, C. (2016a). Investigating everyday measures through exploratory talk: whole classroom intervention and landscape study at Grade four. Cultural Studies of Science Education. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11422-016-9784-y

Gade, S. & Blomqvist, C. (2016b). Shared object and stakeholdership in teacher- researcher expansive activity. In C. Csíkos, A. Rausc. & J. Szitányi (Eds.), Proceedings of the 40th conference of the international group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 2, pp. 267-274). Szeged: PME.

Gutierrez, R. (2013). The sociocpolitical turn in mathematics education. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 44 (1), 37-68. https://doi.org/10.5951/jresematheduc.44.1.0037

Karpov, Y. (2003). Development through the lifespan: a neo-Vygotskian approach. In A. Kozulin, B. Gidnis, V. Agaye. & S. Miller (Eds.), Vygotsky's educational theory in cultural context (pp 138-155). New York: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511840975.009

Krainer, K. (2011). Teachers as stakeholders in mathematics education research. In B. Ubuz (Ed.), Proceedings of the international group of Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 1, pp. 47-62). Ankara: PME.

Lather, P. (1986a). Research as praxis. Harvard Educational Review, 56 (3), 257-277. Lather, P. (1986b). Issues of validity in openly ideological research: between a rock and a soft place. Interchange, 17 (4), 63-84. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01807017

Lather, P. (1991). Getting smart: feminist research and pedagogy with/in the postmodern. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203451311

Lather, P. (2001). Validity as an incitement to discourse: qualitative research and the crisis of legitimation. In V. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (pp. 241-250). Washington: American Educational Research Association.

Leinwand, S., Brahier, D. J. & Huinker, D. (2014). Principles to actions: ensuring mathematical success for all. Reston: NCTM.

Mercer, N. (2004). Sociocultural discourse analysis: analyzing classroom talk as a social mode of thinking. Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1 (2), 137-168. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.2004.1.2.137

Newman, F. & Holzman, L. (1997). End of knowing: new developmental way of learning. Florence: Routledge.

Niss, M. (2007). Reflections on the state of and trends in research on mathematics teaching and learning. In F. Lester (Ed.), Second handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning (pp. 1293-1323). Charlotte: Information Age Publishers.

Persson, C., Blomqvist, C. & Gade, S. (2016). Lappar och problemställning. Nämnaren, 2016 (1), 39-42. https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.1893-8981-2016-01-04

Pinnegar, S. &Hamilton, M. L. (2011). Narrating the tensions of teacher educator researcher in moving story to research. In J. Kitchen & D. C. Parker (Eds.), Advances in research on teaching (pp. 43-68). Bradford: Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3687(2011)00000130006

Polkinghorne, D. E. (1997). Reporting qualitative research as practice. In W. G. Tierney & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Representation and the text: reframing the narrative voice (pp. 3-21). Albany: State University of New York Press.

Saran, R. & Gade, S. (2016). Examining social situation of development, with two students of mathematics at grade four, in different national contexts. Paper presented at AERA 2016. Retrieved from http://www.aera.net/Publications/Online-Paper-Repository/AERA-Online-Paper-Repository

Schoenfeld, A. H. (2013). On forests, trees, elephants, and classrooms: a brief for the study of learning ecologies. ZDM, 45 (3), 491-495. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-013-0504-8

Seeger, F. (2001). The complementarity of theory and praxis in the cultural-historical approach: from self-application to self-regulation. In S. Chaiklin (Ed.), The theory and practice of cultural-historical psychology (pp. 35-55). Aarhus University Press.

Silver, E. A. (2009). Toward a more complete understanding of practice-based professional development for mathematics teachers. In R. Even & D. L. Ball (Eds.), The professional education and development of teachers of mathematics (pp. 245-247). New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09601-8_25

Stetsenko, A. (2010). Standing on the shoulders of giants: a balancing act of dialectically theorizing conceptual understanding on the grounds of Vygotsky's project. In W. M. Roth (Ed.), Re/structuring science education: reuniting psychological and sociological perspectives (pp. 69-88). New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3996-5_6

Timperley, H. (2005). Distributed leadership: developing theory from practice. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 37 (4), 395-420. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220270500038545

Vygotsky, L. S. (1997). Educational psychology. Boca Raton: St. Lucie Press.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1998). The collected works of L S Vygotsky: volume 5 - child psychology. New York: Plenum Press.

Wertsch, J. V. (2007). Mediation. In H. Daniels, M. Col. &J. V. Wertsch (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky (pp. 178-192). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521831040.008

Zeichner, K. (2010). Rethinking the connections between campus courses and field experiences in college- and university-based teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 61 (1-2), 89-99. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487109347671

Åman, J. (2011). Att lära av de bästa: en ESO rapport om svensk skola i ett internationellt forskningsperspektiv [Learning from the best: an ESO report on Swedish school in an international research perspective]. Retrieved from http://eso.expertgrupp.se/rapporter/20118-att-lara-av-de-basta-en-eso-rapport-om-svensk-skola-i-ett-internationellt-forskningsperspektiv/

Downloads

Published

2024-11-19

How to Cite

Gade, S. (2024). Research as praxis, en route theory/practice teacher-researcher collaboration: a self-study. NOMAD Nordic Studies in Mathematics Education, 22(3), 5–23. Retrieved from https://tidsskrift.dk/NOMAD/article/view/148886

Issue

Section

Articles