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This paper critically examines the impact of global development agendas upon the nature and direction of educational development in small states. This generates a critique of the international transfer of western identifies the policy trajectories and related research modalities, strategic importance of small states, and explores possible ways forward for the future support and advancement of educational research in such contexts. In doing so, priority attention is given to the potential of collaborative research initiatives, and to strategies for supporting and strengthening local research capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the challenges to their professional identity encountered by both experienced and beginning teachers in the course of research and development work intended to develop student teachers' pedagogical content knowledge. It reports findings from a collaborative action research project within a well-established initial teacher education partnership that was intended to develop more effective ways of supporting student teachers' learning in relation to two controversial aspects of the secondary school history curriculum: historical enquiry and historical interpretation. The tight focus on procedural concepts at the heart of the discipline made it possible to explore the challenges presented to the student teachers' identity as subject specialists as they sought to develop new forms of professional knowledge as subject teachers. Simultaneously the research and development process itself also revealed profound challenges to the school-based teacher educators' sense of identity - both as teachers and as mentors - that highlighting such contested concepts could pose. In seeking to address these challenges two apparently contradictory, but essentially complementary, approaches seem to be called for. The first is a proper acknowledgement of existing knowledge and expertise - that of the beginning teachers as well as that of their mentors. The second is the forging of a new form of professional identity for mentors: an identity which depends not merely on existing knowledge, but on the capacity to generate new professional knowledge; an identity which includes a role as learner, not merely one as an 'expert' teacher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The title of Western Australia's Deadly Ways to Learn project, an action research project aimed at facilitating and enhancing the teaching and learning of Australian Aboriginal students, was inspired by Aboriginal English in which 'deadly' means 'really good'. Aboriginal English is the first dialect of most Indigenous Australians and differs in fundamental and consistent ways from Standard Australian English which is the language of instruction in most Australian schools. Accordingly, most Aboriginal students receive schooling in a second dialect. Deadly Ways to Learn brought this dilemma into focus and engaged teachers and Indigenous Education Officers (IEOs) from several government, Catholic and independent schools in action research to develop two-way bi-dialectal teaching practices that would support literacy acquisition among Aboriginal students. Getting teachers and IEOs to accept the existence and validity of Aboriginal English was a huge task. The real challenge, however, was getting teachers to respect the sociocultural perspectives and value systems that Aboriginal English is used to express. Teachers and partner IEOs jointly participated in a series of collaborative forums in which candid discussions about culture and linguistics were carefully facilitated. Over a relatively short period, profound changes were observed and self-reported among participants. This paper outlines the collaborative processes employed in the project, qualitative changes that occurred among participants and key findings about two-way bi-dialectal teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a teacher's action research study of writing in the Kindergarten. Response given by children on the teacher's request to write anything on paper; Sessions in the classroom which have evolved as one of the favorite writing activities; Improvement observed in children after few weeks of the activity of free writing time.

This paper provides the narrative of a collaborative experience using ‘performance in research’ as a method to grow doctoral student research knowledge in an education faculty. We propose creating the conditions for collaboration between researchers through arts-based exploration sustains and extends the work of the research community. We also argue that performance in research disrupts traditional supervisor–student relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Discusses the utilization of collaborative action research in enhancing supervisory effectiveness of the supervisory effectiveness of public school teachers. Development of a theoretical framework reflecting research on adult developmental stages, alternative supervisory models and practices, and collaborative action research as a methodology for collecting data; Application of developmentally based administrative practices and the enhancement of student learning; Personal and professional growth of teachers through the use of collaborative action research.

Examines the requirements of and expectations for action research in the light of the collaborative project carried out as part of a National Institute of Education (NIE) funded project in New Hampshire and Michigan. Factual background on the NIE project; Challenges in collaborative action research; Expected outcomes in staff development, theory and practice.

Describes three projects where educational practitioners from Ontario participated in action research related to school curricular change. Overview of the concept of action research, collaborative research and collaborative action research; Investigation of curriculum implementation in three schools; Analysis of school-based curriculum decision making.

Looks at how action research affects teachers and what it takes to bring about and sustain significant change. Description of an action research; Description and analysis of the evolution of a different group identity from the original, the grant-dependent group; Basic questions about the nature of knowledge group members are developing and the consequent effects on their educational philosophy and practice.

Anthony Crosland was the most formative of education ministers in the 1960s whose contribution promoted intellectual activity within the policy discourse. He retains an iconic status for that reason. He provided the intellectual foundations of ‘revisionism’ which emancipated the Labour Party from belief in nationalisation as the way to greater equality. He eschewed the traditional canons of Labour policy which embodied faded value assumptions. He separated values and ideals from the means of achieving them. The future of socialism (1956) knocked the ground from under the Marxists’ feet by showing that there was no evidence of the pauperisation of the masses or that capitalism was near collapse. There was no necessary link between class and power. The devotion to Clause 4 was misplaced: nationalisation was a means, not an end. Private ownership could be used to advance social ends but not in preference to public ownership. He reviewed education’s faults and ways of remedying them. The comprehensive principle must be propagated and public school entry democratised. Education, not nationalisation, would create a more just society. He made a large impact in a short time. He can be criticised for not being more decisive in pursuing his objectives but was unusual as a gifted intellectual who applied knowledge to current policy issues on which he held passionate beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a discussion on participatory action research, based on teaching experiences. The approach is gaining momentum and recognition in academic circles but still often limited to specialized training centers. Participatory action research is gaining momentum and recognition in academic circles, but it has not been well integrated into regular university curricula. Schools of social work, however, would be ideal sites for such courses, as they are mandated by their accrediting bodies (the Council on Social Work Education in the United States; the Canadian Association of Schools of Social Work in Canada) to work toward social justice. Because education in participatory research, as it is also known, has not been widely offered in universities, researchers are often left to fend for themselves. Maguire (1993) described the obstacles she encountered doing participatory research in her doctoral dissertation, while others first developed their participatory research in their field work.

Focuses on a collaborative action research study, Action Research on Change in Schools (ARCS), which is a third in a series of the U.S. National Institute of Education (NIE) sponsored research projects as of December 1987. Other NIE sponsored research projects on action research; Several elements distinguishing ARCS projects from its predecessors; Comparison of teachers at different stages of adult development.

Explores teachers' experiences with action research. Questions asked to the teachers who are likely to do action research; Description of action research projects by the teachers; Difficulty encountered by the teachers in their research projects; Influence of social or professional context in which the research is conducted on the focus and design of an action research project.

Focuses on a Language Arts teacher's action research study to motivate students who do not want to learn. Valuable sources of collecting data throughout the entire study; Benefit of the act of identification with the students; Chronological account of how the processes of teaching and learning were interchanged between a group of unmotivated adolescents and their Language Arts teacher.

Discusses the evolution of a program called Classroom Research Study Group and teachers' role as action researchers. Several insights derived from the collaborative effort to facilitate teachers' development as action researchers; Policies that have a significant impact on many teachers as they conduct research; Issues concerning the professionalization of teaching.

Attempts to define a critical role for teacher research and relates that role to key themes in the literature on action research. Key feature of action research; Different phases of action research; Implications of stress on teacher accountability and appraisal for teachers involved in research into their own practice; Procedures that should be adopted by the teachers to develop a research style for themselves.

Explores links between action research and teacher involvement in curriculum research and curriculum development. Historical and philosophical evolution of action research; Writers who employed the term and concept of action research; Constraints on teacher research and curriculum development.

Focuses on various articles in the 'Peabody Journal of Education' on action research, which is a means of professional development of teachers, critical for school improvement. Possible reforms which might enhance the possibilities and potential of action research; Contributes of the articles; Common assumption about action research; Role of action research in curriculum development projects.

Discusses the need for preservice teachers to participate in educational action research. Reasons for introducing action research for the education of preservice teachers; Logical connection between action research and the process of reflection; Guidelines for conducting action research with preservice teachers.

Discusses the trends and future possibilities in educational action research. Differences in purposes and application of educational research; Place of action research in educational reformation; Noticeable trend in symbiotic and cooperative work in education action research.

Focuses on the challenges in symbiotic collaboration in educational action research. Types of collaboration distinguished by roles of participants, degrees of institutional support, topics addressed and type of focus; Relationship between reflection and action; Bureaucratic, developmental organizations, and marginal improvements.

Discusses the challenges confronting educational action research in Australia. Advocacy for a form of action research rooted with an epistemology rooted in critical social science; Tension between individual and cultural or collective action in action research; Strain between technical and practical conceptions on the nature of educational improvement and culturally-based conceptions.

Explores the impact of action research on schools from a political-cultural perspective. Hypothesis on the disagreement between a school's political and cultural function and action research; Consideration for the embedded structure of schooling; Failure of social systems to begin transformation without intolerable disruption.

Focuses on a faculty development program conducted to explore the usefulness of action research known as practice-centered inquiry for the improvement of teaching in a higher education setting. Method used to encourage the use of practice-centered inquiry by faculty in higher education; Problems of concern of the faculty members; Factors crucial for facilitating use of systematic practice-centered enquiry.

Shares the author's personal practical theories (PPT), systematic theories or beliefs held by each teacher that are based upon personal experiences that occur as a result of designing and implementing the curriculum through instruction. Influence of PPT on the design of the author's graduate curriculum courses and the action research project within them; Implications of including action research in graduate coursework for inservice teachers through the illustration of the projects of several graduate students.

Discusses journal writing in action research. Author's journal writing trips with her students; Approach to writing journals about her professional practice; Meanings and methods of action research journals.

Discusses the role of action research in education studies. Applications of activities labeled action research; Common intention of all action research; Author's experience with critically reflective action research; Action research as interpretive knowing.

Discusses action research as an agent for developing teachers' communicative competence. Simplistic notion of change; Story of one third grade teacher's involvement in action research; Primary assumption behind encouraging teachers to engage in action research; Definition of communicative competence.

Discusses various perspectives related to action research and their relationships to problem formulation and methods of data gathering, observation and interview. Reasons why some action researchers limit their choices of researchable questions, tools and techniques; Relationship between theory and research; Alternative paradigms available to the teacher researcher; Positivist and interpretivist perspectives.

The article presents information about French philosopher Marquis de Condorcet. He grew up in a mean, petty-bourgeois environment, his lot not made lighter by the fact that until his eighth year his mother clothed him as a girl. He was bored and this was a boredom which was to remain with him for his whole life. He later, in 1775, followed up the grain riots with articles on the economic plight of the peasants, rather caffing forth the disapproval of his Academy, and developed his opinions in a singularly liberal manner. In due course some of his pamphlets were burnt, his political ally was dismissed, and his mentor died from an overdose of opium on top of her tuberculosis. Condorcet discussed the need for a system of education at some length. He pointed out that servitude and ignorance go hand in hand, that an educated people follows responsible and enlightened leaders, while an ignorant people is easily duped by rogues. Even if the law conserves their liberty, the people must know which man is capable of maintaining the law, or else must come to depend entirely upon one man or one class.

The article focuses on the responsibility of comparative education to provide developmental perspective in relation to other social sciences. There is a growing committedness to help formulate a strategy of decision and developmental programs to address the educational needs of young people. The comparative studies of education are associated with works in sociology, economics and regional studies of development. The continuous rethinking of educational policy can be ensured by the establishment of one or more parliaments for educational policy at different levels. There is shortage of actual training for the implementation of decisions.