Teacher Researcher Projects in South Africa: Some Trends and Issues.

This paper presents a review of research projects recently completed by teachers in South Africa. The purpose is to describe the nature of these projects and to see what trends emerge from an analysis of the location, purpose, design, methodology, and findings of the projects. Five different projects in which more than 70 teachers have been involved are reviewed. Findings indicate that teacher research work is located in larger teacher education projects, and that clear differences exist in set-up and purposes of the studies. Action research methodology has been employed with varied levels of sophistication, rendering findings that are very personal and reflecting the complexities and conditions of teachers' work. The key issues highlighted and discussed are the location of teacher research work, the interests served by teacher research, the varied uses of action research, and the nature and value of findings made by teacher researchers. Some implications for further teacher research in South Africa are explored. An appendix provides brief descriptions of five projects reviewed in this document. (Approximately 60 references.) (LL)