We, language teachers, are in a privileged position to carry out research. While researchers have to spend a lot of time trying to get ‘familiar’ with the setting, we already spend most of our time within it. It has been recognised (Nolla 1997, Woods 1998, Holliday 2002, Verma and Mallick 1999, Hopkins 2002) that teachers are in an excellent position to investigate what happens inside schools and that what a teacher does in her professional daily life is very similar to what a researcher aims to,
«In teaching practice, teachers are able to use ethnographic methods since they interact with their students and become outstanding observers and interviewers, their job allows them to be part of the group, but, maintaining their teacher’s role; all it needs is some time of reflection and analysis so that that experience becomes a fruitful ethnographic work»
(Nolla, 1997, 108).
So, what do we need to make this transition from teacher to teacher-researcher? As hinted by Nolla in the quote above, we should be more reflective and analytical of our teaching practice. We should capitalise on our everyday activities to transform them into relevant research. We are already engaged in ethnographic research: we observe what goes on in the classroom and assess students’ behaviour, we administer questionnaires and interview students as part of our classroom activities, and we listen to (and sometimes record) what they say; in short, we normally use ethnographic methods of data generation (observation, interviews, and questionnaires) as part of our classroom activities. In order to transform this work we do everyday into research we need to be systematic, we need to use a rigorous approach to collect data consistently over a period of time and find the way to publish the results of our investigations for the benefit of our colleagues nationwide. The results of this work can be very fruitful and relevant to improve our teaching practice.
Holliday (2002) expands on the advantages of researching our place of work. To begin with, whereas external researchers have to adopt a new role for the purposes of his/her research, we capitalize on an existing one by expanding it as a research role. Secondly, and because of the previous point, we have the huge advantage of being familiar with the research setting, which allows us to move at ease since we are already familiar with both the social and job conventions that govern interaction. A word of caution must be stated: we shouldn’t take anything for granted. For in order to be able to investigate our environment, we must place all our assumptions to the test; everything must be seen with ‘new’ eyes, acting like a stranger (pp. 26-27). Bassey, (1992:1) highlighting the advantages of being a ‘reflective professional’ (teacher-researcher) over the ‘expert professional’ (external researcher), mentions another plus of researching our workplace, that of working closely with the students. Our daily contact with our students let us be aware of their needs, struggles, aspirations, confrontations, etc. It is precisely this purposeful interaction with our students which demonstrates our concern to improve our teaching practice and students’ learning.
As you can see, we teachers are in an advantageous position over academics since the information (knowledge) we generate is regarded as more meaningful and relevant to our teaching practice than that created by outsider researchers. In what follows, I will try to describe some guidelines for the generation of data. To conclude this section read the following quote from Verma and Mallick (1999:184):
«Anyone who has qualified as a teacher … is perfectly capable of being a member of an action research team and making real contributions to the teaching-leaning process»
How is our daily job similar to that of a researcher??
Let’s consider the following definition of ethnography:
Ethnography.- ethnography is the study of people in naturally occurring settings or ‘fields’ by methods of data collection which capture their social meanings and ordinary activities, involving the researcher participating directly in the setting, if not also the activities, in order to collect data in a systematic manner but without meaning being imposed on them externally.
(Brewer, J.D. 2000. Ethnography. Open University Press, p. 6)
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Ethnographic research entails |
Teaching involves |
| study of people | working with people and, in a way, studying them |
| naturally occurring settings | working in schools, classrooms, school offices, spending lots of time in the setting |
| capture of social meanings (views, perceptions, interpretations) | exchanging information, asking for opinions, |
| capture of ordinary activities | observation of pupils’ behaviour, activities |
| participation of researcher in setting | teaching in the setting, relating with peers and students |
| systematic collection of data through: | |
| observation | observation of students’ behaviour, reactions, moods, etc. |
| interviews (asking questions) | asking questions, usually in terms of ‘form’ but easily adaptable to content |
| administration of questionnaires | use of questionnaires, checklists for language purposes but can be shifted to content |
| document analysis | analysis of exams, papers, homework |
| data interpretation | we naturally ‘interpret’ what we see, read or hear, usually with a teaching or evaluation purpose |
| Theorizing | we make assumptions based on what we hear, see or read, feel |
Similarities between ethnographic research and teaching