Researching the complexity of classrooms

摘要

In recent years, it has become fashionable to demand of research that it produces ‘evidence’ that can be turned into easily generalisable findings. Ever more elaborate sets of managerial standards and pre-defined learning outcomes have been imposed, and English teachers are encouraged to see their practice as merely an implementation of ‘what works’. What gets lost in such discourse is the messy and wonderfully productive complexity of classrooms and the layered and deeply historied character of the interactions that take place in them. This article considers a different kind of research, one that is clearly located within particular contexts and is always attentive to the lives and capacities of the students and their teachers. At the heart of this article is the collaboration between a university academic and a practising English teacher, a collaboration that is both documented and enacted in Confronting Practice, Classroom Investigations into Language and Learning by Brenton Doecke and Douglas McClenaghan.View full textDownload full textKeywordsResearch, collaboration, social relations in the classroomRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1358684X.2012.649144