Using Insider Research in MEd Final Projects to Bridge the Theory/Practice Gap

This paper aims to identify key issues involved in MEd final project supervision and to highlight the potential of supervision from an academic institution to change educational reality through the postgraduate student-teachers' work-based final project as insider researchers in Israeli schools. It draws on analysis of case-study data from two supervision workshops for student-teachers (Although most students studying for MEd degrees in Israel are teachers or even principals with years of experience of teaching and sometimes management they will be referred to in this paper as student-teachers for uniformity and clarity.) in a master's degree programme in Educational Leadership. It focuses on data generated from interviews with three supervisees. The paper's findings highlight the supervision process, indicating stages of this process that assist students to develop their research skills in order to change school reality in different scopes and dimensions and to adopt inquiry as a stance. The student-teachers identify difficulties in schools and motivate and help to implement educational change. In short, the paper provides a model that can potentially enrich practice in the field with knowledge generated by academic research and bridge the gap between theory and practice.