This article discusses participative action research performed by a network consisting of researchers and student-teachers of a University of Applied Sciences and teachers and pupils of four primary schools in the Netherlands. The research took place in the context of the research group "Behaviour and Research in the Educational Praxis".…

Action research can be understood as a complex interplay between local circumstances and local research traditions, embedded in their turn in local intellectual-philosophical traditions, national as well as international. Because of this interplay it is questionable whether it would be particularly fruitful to look for 'typical local forms of…

This article describes the complex nature of collaborative relationships, the difficulties of conducting research with others, and the complications of partnerships in educational research. To create and sustain a communicative space in which participants can collaborate to innovate education and curriculum, time and opportunity to develop trust…

The aim of the study was to describe students' and teacher educators' practical experience with action research and to identify a number of special points for consideration (opportunities and limitations) which could play a role in putting research into practice in concrete terms in the courses. Students and teacher educators on three Dutch…

The present article reports on a case study into the influence and impact of action research carried out by teachers in a special school. The action research was an important component of the two-year, post-initial, in-service course in special educational needs, provided by Fontys University of Applied Sciences, Department of Inclusive and…

The idea of teachers and teacher educators engaging in research is not, in itself, new, but in recent years the propagation of this idea seems to have become really popular. This growing popularity brings the risk that practitioner research will degenerate into an increasingly vague and obscure "container concept". The aim of this article is to…

This article describes the design and results of a descriptive and explorative case study into the development of professional knowledge by teachers through action research and the facilitation of this by teacher educators. The theoretical framework of the study links the Anglo-Saxon Action Research tradition and the German "Allgemeine Didaktik."…

The question what contribution action research can make to the professional development of teachers is not easy to answer. It depends firstly on the context in which action research takes shape and secondly on the conceptual principles on which educators and teachers base their view of what good action research is. In order to be able to use…

Examines the value of action research within the context of the professionalization of teachers in continuing education, describing continuing education based on action research and highlighting a training course on school counseling and guidance for secondary school teachers that allowed educators to explore the relationship between teaching and…

The TRIO Project (Teacher Training & Research for Individuals & Organisations) began with the notion that cross-cultural reflection could be an effective tool by which teachers could examine their personal belief systems about learning, teaching and pupil guidance. University-based teacher educators from four countries, the Netherlands,…

This article outlines the experiences of educators in three teacher education institutes in the USA, Australia and the UK as they experiment with carrying out programmes based on ideas of action research. The emphasis is on experiences with programmes of initial education for secondary school teachers. A descriptive case study aimed to find out…