Experiments in Agency

This book is about teacher agency and leadership, but it is also an experiment in shifting the balance of power in research and writing. It is about making accessible the process of academic publishing in a way that capitalizes on the knowledge of people in diverse contexts and with novice eyes and is an experiment in sharing academic writing between master teachers and doctoral students. It is also a book on the power of action research and the belief we have as teacher educators about the transformative power of teachers in their own classrooms. Pairing master teachers from ten countries who were part of the Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program with graduate students, this book provides a framework to decolonize research practices in an effort to re-envision research methodologies on a global scale. The book also provides a tangible way to see how research processes support local transformation, and direct engagement of those at the margins to play a greater role in the production of scholarly knowledge. The cross-national scope of this book, with authors working in classrooms in countries as diverse as Turkey, Chile, and Bangladesh coupled work of novice US-based scholars to engage in the conceptualizing, researching, data analysis and writing of chapters speaks to the importance of new voices in the field of research. Additionally, the combination of teacher research projects in the classroom juxtaposed with chapters that speak to the process of teacher research in a global context provides both theoretical and empirical foundations for teacher research.

This book is about teacher agency and leadership, but it is also an experiment in shifting the balance of power in research and writing. It is about making accessible the process of academic publishing in a way that capitalizes on the knowledge of people in diverse contexts and with novice eyes and is an experiment in sharing academic writing between master teachers and doctoral students. It is also a book on the power of action research and the belief we have as teacher educators about the transformative power of teachers in their own classrooms. Pairing master teachers from ten countries who were part of the Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program with graduate students, this book provides a framework to decolonize research practices in an effort to re-envision research methodologies on a global scale. The book also provides a tangible way to see how research processes support local transformation, and direct engagement of those at the margins to play a greater role in the production of scholarly knowledge. The cross-national scope of this book, with authors working in classrooms in countries as diverse as Turkey, Chile, and Bangladesh coupled work of novice US-based scholars to engage in the conceptualizing, researching, data analysis and writing of chapters speaks to the importance of new voices in the field of research. Additionally, the combination of teacher research projects in the classroom juxtaposed with chapters that speak to the process of teacher research in a global context provides both theoretical and empirical foundations for teacher research.

Foreword; About the Cover; Acknowledgements; Prologue; The Story of the Fellowship: An International Partnership between Teachers and Researchers; An Efficacious Professional Development Program for International Teachers; The Transformative Power of Action Research; The Cases – Making a Case for Action Research and Social Justice; First Steps toward Community: Facilitating Connections between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Students in Rural Argentina; A Teacher and Students’ Transformation at a Time of War: A Case from Yemen; Detective Ouattara: Searching for the Female Voice in the Classroom; The Cases – Working with Students and Transforming Practice; Building Intrinsic Motivation for English Writing in a Salvadoran Classroom; Implementing a “New” Method of Teaching English in Bangladesh: Incorporating a Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Model in a High School Classroom; Crossing the Border: Collaborative Critical Literacy in Istanbul; Promoting Active and Engaged Learning through Inclusive Teaching: A Social Studies Class in Ghana; The Cases – Ensuring Collaboration Across and Beyond the Classroom; Listen Up!!!: Exploring Metacognitive Listening Strategies in a Kazakhstan Classroom; Developing Communicative Competence through Content-Based Instruction: An Action Research Study in Colombia; Journeys through Changing Practice: The Chilean English Teachers’ Network; Back to the Shire – At Journey’s End: Lessons Learned through a Global Education Partnership; About the Contributors.