Restructuring Teaching: A Call for Research

Abstract

at the 1986 AERA annual meeting. Those who heard Futrell speak, and those who will now read her words, will recognize an important call for collaboration and mutual support between teachers and educational researchers. This call comes at a time when teachers, through their professional organizations, are striving for recognition qua professionals. As students of the professions have noted (see especially Lortie's 1977 landmark study of the status and functioning of teachers, School Teacher: A Sociological Study, published by the University of Chicago Press), professions depend critically on technical knowledge. Members of professions have and use, and are recognized by society as having and using, knowledge and technique special to their field. This knowledge sets members of the profession apart from occasional dabblers or amateurs at their art; it also distinguishes expert from novice members of the profession since knowledge takes time and practice to acquire. Futrell points out that as teachers seek professional recognition for their work, they are looking to research on education to provide the base for their technical knowledge. Research-on learning and instruction, on the social organization and functioning of schools, and on instruments for monitoring and managing the process of education-is what teachers need for building the tools of their technical expertise. Teachers and researchers need each other. Without users, most research would be empty of import; without increasing knowledge on which to build their expertise, teachers will find their claims to professional status unheeded. That is why this appeal for an alliance between teachers and researchers comes at this time, and why it is so important to heed the appeal. LAUREN B. RESNICK, President, AERA