EDUC 376 - Powerful Learning through Teacher Research

Teacher research - documentation and reflection of one’s own classroom practice - is a centerpiece of this seminar.  Participants will read about and practice a variety of ethnographic and discourse analytic tools and approaches for bringing their classrooms “to the table” with colleagues.  Participants will document – through video taping, collecting student work, and using a variety of epistemic tools – the participation and learning that takes place in key discussions over the course of the semester.  Therefore, the course will introduce participants to not only the principles and “ways of knowing” of teacher research, but also to the “tools” of data collection and analysis.

Throughout the course, we will grapple, individually and collectively, with several key questions, including

• What does it mean to be a teacher researcher? How do teachers research their practice? What can be learned or known from researching our practice?
• What does it mean to understand teacher research as a “way of knowing”?
• What is the relationship between classroom research and teaching practice?  What is the relationship between knowledge and practice? What is the role of “theory” in the work of teachers?
• What does teacher research have to contribute to our understanding of teaching and learning?

Teachers from all grade levels, K-12 and the university, and all subject areas - will work together on equal footing.  Together, we will use the tools of ethnographic and discourse analytic research to ask and answer our own questions, and generate new knowledge for the field, working toward presentations of our work for other educators involved in urban education, both locally and nationally. 

May be repeated one time for credit.

Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall or Spring