Communities for Teacher Research: Fringe or Forefront?

Abstract

There are many obstacles to teacher research in schools, teacher groups, school-university partnerships, and regional and national forums. This article argues that overcoming these obstacles requires the building and sustaining of intellectual communities of teacher-researchers, or networks of individuals who enter with other teachers into a collaborative search for definition and satisfaction in their work lives as teachers and who regard research as part of larger efforts to transform teaching, learning, and schooling. Drawing on examples from various teacher and student teacher groups, the article presents an analytic framework for interpreting and evaluating the work of communities for teacher research according to the ways they organize time, use talk, construct texts, and interpret the tasks of teaching and schooling.