Narrative inquiry as a form of teacher action research

Abstract

This thesis is an action research project in the sense that I inquire into experiences that have contributed to the formation of my professional subjectivity as a public school teacher. These experiences are constructed in research narratives. In the first chapter, I describe in narrative how I first came to action research in the course of a series of reflective conversations with a colleague. In the second chapter, I theorize action research as a reflective and transformative conversation about pedagogical actions or forms of action. This conversation occurs within a research collective. Chapters three, four, and five document the reading-responses of a group of teachers to three research narratives. These responses are interpreted and placed into the context of my pedagogical concerns and educational values. Discussion of how the members of the research collective may have transformed their practice lies outside the scope of this study. Chapter six examines how the textual maneuvers of the research narratives represent action research.