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2008H9Schreyer

A New Era of Teacher Research: Revising Methodologies in Critical Classrooms
By Jessica Schreyer
JSchreye@dbq.edu

April Heaney provided a brief overview of the history of teacher research in composition. She explained the importance of having knowledge of effective and sound research strategies so that composition scholars can advocate for things they need in the classroom and as researchers. She explained and defined teacher research as a distinct, and important, research genre.

Heany conducted a study of the research class requirements of programs in the Consortium of Doctoral Programs. Of the 43 that responded, 32 required methodology courses, and 11 did not. The type and number of required courses varied widely.

She stated that it is crucial for the development of our field that teacher researchers learn more about a variety of research methods and that there is increased emphasis on formalized research training in doctoral programs. She believed this would strengthen the field of composition as a whole and help provide composition scholars a stronger voice to advocate across campuses.

Her case was both timely and compelling. She explained how the increased knowledge of a variety of research methods used in composition and teacher research would help scholars gain respect from colleagues and be able to better use the research of their peers. She also explained how this formalization would help prevent knowledge from being lost over the years, because studies could be reviewed or reconstructed in other settings. By having a broad array of knowledge on research strategies, composition scholars can have engaging discussions with their peers in a variety of disciplines and conduct more thoughtful research. Increased formalization of methodology courses will also help doctoral students better define and plan their research, both for their dissertations and for future research. Overall, an increased emphasis on formalized research training would serve to improve the discipline.

The second portion of the presentation built on the ideas that Heany presented and was about a research study conducted in William Thelin’s composition class. The study provided convincing reasons why intentional research design should be used to increase the ability to verify results.