Taking Action with Teacher Research

by Frances Rust (Editor)

More and more, classroom teachers are using action research strategies to tackle basic issues and daily dilemmas-everything from designing their own professional development to reshaping instructional practice. Through their support of teachers who are eager to take up this work, Ellen Meyers and Frances Rust have found that the challenges to the reform of public schools are most likely to surface in three resources needed to meet standards, conditions of the workplace, and status of the teaching profession. Their book is a lucid guide for teachers to address these and other problems in classrooms and beyond; to ask the right questions and design and implement research to find answers; and to use this data to effect change. Every chapter contains rich examples of teacher research in action. When teachers consider themselves to be researchers, not just consumers of research, they are exercising leadership. And when teachers form networks to share their knowledge, they are breaking down obstacles that have thwarted their leadership for so long. Action research empowers teachers to do just that-to lead reform efforts and provide the remedies needed for all children to succeed. The studies in this book are part of the work of the Teachers Network Policy Institute, whose mission is to give teachers an active voice in education policy making. For more information, contact . All proceeds support the Teachers Network Policy Institute.

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 16, 2003