For the past fourteen years I would consider myself a teacher researcher. And although I have rarely researched and collected findings for publication, and much of my research has been informal, I believe that I have conducted research as valid as any research organization. I believe that change will not come from the administration to the teacher, but that change will occur from “the inside out.” Ray makes a strong, and for many, uncomfortable point when she states…

Teacher-researchers challenge a number of assumptions underlying the traditional (positivist) paradigm in education: that research should be objective, controlled, and decontextualized; that the researcher should be distanced and uninvolved; that research is always theory-driven and must be generalizable in order to perpetuate theory building; and that knowledge and truth exist in the world and are found through research (175).

Teachers are looking for information to help them understand or better a specific learning environment. As such is the case, they will not be uninvolved or distant. They are not necessary concerned with the Bell curve, and it will often be entirely appropriate if their results do not generalize out to the entire student population. Unlike the medical profession which might test new cures on rats and monkeys, educational research is conducted with students. It can not be controlled and decontextualized. For all of these reasons teacher research is valid.

Although I previously stated that teachers are researchers even if they do not know it, this “quiet revolution” can move no further until teachers realize that they must move “into a system in which they themselves are responsible for the production of knowledge (174). During this high stakes testing era in education, teachers often ask me why their expertise is ignored. I must admit that my usual reply is that it is now time to prove our knowledge. It is, after all, what we ask of our students. It is time to move from the “I just know” stage into the “I will offer proof/knowledge” stage. But as we make this transition, we need to be prepared for obtaining results which do not match what we expected. It is then that the collaborative process Ray discusses becomes so important. The need to see results or a process from varying points of view and the need to include others whose expertise differs from one’s own is essential. The power of one teacher to change education is incredible. The power of several working together is a true revolution.