Conflating Contrasting Needs: Introducing a Model for Designing Teacher Research in Sub-Optimal Educational Contexts

This paper tackles the issue of teacher researchers by offering a model for the design of teacher-led inquiries that meets both the theoretical and the practical requirements of scientific research in educational settings. Part 1 focuses on teachers' reluctance to undertake academic research during the course of their working year. Two practical reasons are identified, which explain teachers' lack of involvement with scientific investigations: excessive demands on behalf of policymakers and limited availability of resources. Part 2 moves on to the theoretical level and identifies two beliefs about knowledge that are culturally widespread, and which limit the academia's ability to embrace everyday workplace experiences as a type of scientifically informing educational practice. Drawing on Damiano (2015), the epistemological legitimacy of teachers' experiences is thus redrafted. Part 3 introduces a model for designing research activities in educational settings, so that no supplementary time or resources is required to pursue scientific goals, despite the manifold constraints of teachers' everyday work. The chief example described in this paper focuses on early school leaving and the possibility to convert an ordinary career day into an investigation based on visual ethnography, which aims to empower students at risk. Said case is rendered with a diagram, which constitutes a useful tool for designing research according to the model's guidelines. Finally, Part 4 assesses the viability of the model against a framework conceived for the meta-evaluation of evaluatory practices.