Mike Calou
English 5870
Dr. Devries
March 1, 2009
Commentary Number Two
Ruth Ray
The main idea of this article is that teacher research does not need to exist in a vacuum. Teachers are the “meat” in the educational sandwich. What I mean by “meat” is that teachers are guided by administrators and researchers when it comes to being informed about new teaching methods (administrators and researchers are the bread on either side of the meat). Ruth Ray is advocating that teachers are in the best position to research teaching methods; by virtue of working in a classroom. I agree with this point of view because it makes sense from a practical standpoint. For example, doctors are in the best position to develop new medical procedures because they see patients with medical issues on a daily basis. Likewise, teachers are in a good position to research and develop new methods to teach their own students; students who have learning issues.
Ray also characterizes researchers as makers of knowledge and teachers as consumers and providers of knowledge (174). Teacher experience is dismissed as a legitimate resource to provide improvements in teaching method; at least fro a scholarly point of view. Ruth Ray also argues that teachers are in a good position to produce knowledge and teacher research is a way to look at a problem and then modify the teaching (174). I agree that teacher research is an important part of the teaching profession. What I don’t understand is why teachers are not valued for the input they can provide to improve teaching methods. Teachers working in collaboration, or networking, can provide some valuable insights into teaching methodology. Ray also suggests that teacher collaboration with other teachers is an effective research strategy (178). I think what she is saying is that teachers have to rise above the status-quo and advocate for teacher based research opportunities.
The author mentions that current pedagogical research methods are quantitative and strive for a “scientific” approach. The best research, Ray says, is qualitative and practice-oriented (175). I think that in the quest for the “right answer” researchers lose sight of reality. Reality is what is happening in the classroom: Ray’s point is that the teacher is in the best position to observe and research what is happening and how teaching methods can be improved. An example of qualitative research would be if the teacher collaborated with students to find out the best approach to a writing project. The author of this article gives three examples of teacher-student collaborated projects. I agree with Ray that teachers learn as much from their students as the students learn fro their teacher (177). The classroom should be a learning environment not only for the student but also for the teacher.
Ruth Ray makes some good points about why teacher research is not more prevalent. She sites four limitations to teacher based research (183): 1) the teacher participant observers lack perspective, 2) teacher based research doesn’t always live up to community expectations, 3) the data is only relevant to the teacher-researcher’s classroom, 4) the teacher’s attention is divided. These are all good limitations: however, keeping these limitations in mind when conducting research can help avoid credibility issues. I have thought; the university professors that are currently teaching the teachers of tomorrow, by and large, believe that research should be conducted by researchers. What Ruth Ray is saying is that we have to break new ground as we develop into teachers of teachers and advocate for the teacher as a researcher.
There are some common threads that I am noticing about research. The first thing is that credibility is a big issue. So, in order to be credible the researcher needs to make an effort to gather accurate information. The second thing I noticed was that during my paired observation I did not include a lot of dialogue. I believe that the dialogue would have provided irrefutable proof to back up the point I was trying to make; that worker two preferred to make coffee rather than take customer orders. This may seem a trivial point, but as a reflective teacher (and teacher-based researcher) I modified my note-taking during a classroom observation; I included more dialogue. I’m not sure if the additional dialogue I recorded provided any “irrefutable” evidence, but at least I can more easily recreate what happened in the classroom. In conclusion, I believe that Ruth Ray’s main idea is that teacher research should not exist in a vacuum. Teachers need to research their own teaching in order to adapt to an ever changing student.