Critical analysis of action research-based inservice teacher education : four case histories

Changing the nature of institutionalised education is the central theme of the thesis. The potential for radical changes to classroom teaching and to inservice teacher education is considered through four curriculum and teaching reform projects structured by action -research. The problems explored through the thesis are at the levels of teaching, institutional and research practices. It is argued that the professional activity of teachers, administrators, consultants, teacher educators and researchers can be understood to be tightly bound and determined by rules for acceptable professional ways of acting which are often unquestioned and unexamined by educators themselves. It is further argued that institutionalised education is dominated by ways of thinking and acting that are inherently individualistic. The thesis analyses the ideological character of this 'individualistic1 structuring of educational practice, identifying belief systems that hold the lived reality of educators and students in place. The thesis endeavours to show that the bureaucratic character of institutionalised education primarily serves and maintains the interests of dominant groups. The thesis examines the possibilities for radical reform in classroom teaching, the support teachers need when embarking on curriculum and teaching change processes, and the possible outcomes of such reform. The thesis also examines the interaction between the institutional practices of schools, universities and regional offices in the Ministry of Education in Victoria, Australia on these reform processes in classrooms. Finally, the thesis examines the potential of action research as a research and educative process in the professional development of educators who are both critically aware of the ideological nature of institutionalised education and committed to collective social action. From the analyses of the four action research projects the thesis concludes that action research has the potential to transform institutionalised education when its own practice is firstly, developed as a liberating pedagogy and not as research projects structured by individualistic and paternalistic interests; secondly, is driven by a commitment to the political struggle for equity and social justice; and thirdly, is itself an expression of communitarian work. The thesis concludes that the transformative processes associated with action research under these conditions hold the promise of democratising the 'individualistic' character of institutional education.