Qualitative Educational Research Methodology

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Teachers Experience of AITSLsNational Professional Standards for Teachers

Chapter 3Design of the Research

Adam J. [email protected]

EDFD707Australian Catholic UniversitySupervisor: Dr. Roger Vallance

Due Date: May 2013

Running head: AITSL PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS 1


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ABSTRACT

The focus of this study is professional standards for teachers and in particular teachers

experience of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leaderships (AITSL) National

Professional Standards for Teachers. The term professional standards has two elements to it

professional and standards. Both professionalism and the standards movement were heavily

influenced by the rise of neoliberalism in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Under this

influence, professionalism has seen the emergence of two competing discourses.

The first discourse is one of quality assurance. It is focussed on accountability levers to improve

the quality of schooling. It is driven top-down by government and has a powerful impulse to

colonise the domain of teacher professionalism and professional standards, reducing standards to

competency checklists and teachers to compliant officers of the state. The second discourse is

one of quality improvement that is focussed on building teacher capacity through professional

learning that is oriented to collaborative inquiry.

The second part of professional standards is the standards element. Standards, like

professionalism, have been the subject of contesting discourses of quality assurance and quality

improvement.

Teacher professional learning forms an almost natural nexus with professional standards and this

nexus has been made explicit by AITSL in its recent publications. Accordingly, the area of

professional standards as a framework for professional learning is examined. Drawing on the

research bases in school improvement and teacher professional learning, the key themes of

capacity building and collaborative inquiry are explored: The moral purpose of teaching; the

critical importance of professional judgement in teachers work; the place of social capital and

the importance of risk and trust in building collaborative networks of practitioner inquiry emerge

as thematic elements of the practitioners response to the quality agenda. A case is made for

teachers to be subversive deeply and questioningly critiquing the status quo which has

seen decades of plateauing in student outcomes despite bids to improve the quality of teaching

and learning. This is a conception of engagement with professional standards where the teacher is

AITSL PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS 2


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an Activist Professional (After Sachs 2011). It is a conception which provides a framework for

examining teachers experience of AITSLs professional standards, for which no research has yet

been noted in the Literature.



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TABLEOF CONTENTS



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1. RATIONALEFORTHE CHOSEN METHODOLOGY

From ED707: State the purpose of the chapter and restate the purpose of the research itself.

You have already generated research questions from the previous chapter so the research

questions should be restated.

Rhetoric v reality in Zajda, 2002.

Critical theory necessary to give voice to the voiceless in a current neoliberal paradigm - the

teacher - to address the potential disempowerment that comes with the danger of standards

reducing the teacher to mere technical officer.

Neoliberalism as the unit of research (Beck & Sznaider, 2006, p. 15).

Chomskys rationale is good enough for me (Chomsky & Foucault, 2006, p. 15).

Why the international context is important: Methodological cosmopolitanism (Beck, 2006) and

methodological nationalism (Beck & Grande, 2010).

Later (1996), after the publication of the Theory of Communicative Action (Habermas 1984,

1987a), and recognising that agreement about these was only possible when people were in

communication with others, he drew attention (Habermas 1987b and especially 1996, Chap. 8) to

the role of communicative action in opening communicative space between peoplethe space of

intersubjectivity (which plays an important role in some of his more recent works, including

Habermas 1998,2002,20033, b, c). Opening communicative space, in turn, depends on our use of

language as a tool for reaching understanding (Kemmis, 2011, p. 16).

Discussions of Australian national or state politics are less relevant to my thesis than is the global

trend of #neoliberalism (Beck & Sznaider, 2006).



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2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

What is the philosophical stance informing the methodology? (Crotty, 1998, p. 2).

The notion of the research paradigm.

Note (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010) and the nature of policy research and the distinction between the

types - analysis for policy vis a vis analysis of policy, pp xi-xii; 45. Perhaps comment here on the

irrelevance of Jensens policy for work at the Gratten Institute (Jensen, 2012).

The importance of research purpose and positionality (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010, p. 51).

An ironic part of our positionality is that as neoliberal people, driven to innovate and succeed on

our own (or be dammed if we do not) is that it drives teacher-researchers like me as professionals

to attempt to seize the Standards Agenda to make national professional standards for teachers

their own (Ball, 2012, p. 144). The significance of neoliberalism (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010, p. xii).

Studying of public policy in a globalised world dominated by a neoliberal imaginary demands

new theoretical and methodological approaches (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010, p. xii).

A theoretical paradigm is thus the identification of the underlying basis that is used to construct

a scientific investigation; or, a loose collection of logically held together assumptions, concepts,

and propositions that orientates thinking and research (Bogdan & Biklan, 1982, p. 30). (Krauss,

2005, p. 75).

What is the Weltanschauung of this piece of work?

2.1. EPISTEMOLOGY

Describe and justify your chosen epistemology. Philosophical assumptions about what

constitutes knowledge claims (Creswell, 2003).

Search #positivism.



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Describe the missing ontology in the nation professional standards for teachers and why the

expression of the ontology of teaching has implications for the selection of research methods,

seeking expression to teacher voice.

Constructionism is an epistemology.

Postmodern perspectives from Usher & Edwards, 2000.

From Joseph Zajdas presentation on mixed methodologies: The epistemology of qualitative

research (Zajda, 2002; 2005).

Epistemology is a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, methods and limits of

human knowledge The epistemology of qualitative research: provides the underpinnings for how

research is conducted, underlying assumptions, how data are collected and analysed and how

conclusions are reached.

2.2. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE

Describe and justify your theoretical perspective.

Not sure if this belongs here or the section above...The program notes read: Research paradigms

mean the varying approaches to assumptions about reality and knowledge that contribute to

different ways of understanding research problems. Commonly these approaches are gathered

into categories that include the experimental/empirical, sometimes labelled as:

positivist or post-positivist,

interpretative and

critical. cf here Creswell, 2003.

Heed the cynicism of (Stronach, 2010, p. 5).

Read here (Candy, 1989; Cherryholmes, 1993; Crotty, 1998; Pring, 2000; Gibbons & Sanderson,



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2002; Gough, 2002; Neuman, 2006; Schnelker, 2006; ODonoghue, 2007; Feast & Melles, 2010;

Lincoln, Lynham & Guba, 2011).



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3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGYAND METHODS

For example, if you are doing a case study, describe and justify its use and its relationship to the

research purpose.

Firstly, what are the strategies of inquiry (Creswell, 2003, p. 3) and then the means of data

collection?

Critical discourse analysis is helpful in providing an account of how political ideologies are

authorized through policies by locating them in the dominant popular imaginaries so that they are

interpreted as emerging from a commonly agreed set of values. (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010, p. 63).

We don not have well developed research methods for determining the extent of power and

influence of networked public policy (Ball, 2012, p. 7).

Interviews. Ethical issues (Plummer, 2001; Briggs, 2003; Krauss, 2005).

Why distinguishing between the perspective of social actors and that of social scientific

observers (Beck, 2006, p. 81) is important. Cf Becks distinction between actor and observer

from the cosmopolitan theoretical perspective (Beck & Sznaider, 2006, p. 4).

From Silverman, 2005: How did you go about your research?

2 What overall strategy did you adopt and why?

3 What design and techniques did you use?

4 Why these and not others?



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4. RESEARCH DESIGN

Mixed methods? Probably not, although there may be a place for a short survey.

4.1. PARTICIPANTS

Who, Why and How.

4.2. DATA GATHERING STRATEGIES

4.3. ANALYSISOF DATA

What methods of analysis have you chosen? How do they work? Carefully use diagrams and

tables.

4.4. VERIFICATIONS

What have you done to ensure the integrity of your work, your writing and your findings?



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4.5. ETHICAL ISSUES

What ethical issues arose and how did you cope with these? How did you plan and conduct the

study so as to avoid major ethical dilemmas?

4.6. OVERVIEWOF RESEARCH DESIGN

What happened and when? Use a diagram



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5. PROPOSED RESEARCH TIMETABLE

5.1.

5.2.



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6. BIBLIOGRAPHY

7. ANNOTATED REFERENCE LISTS

Ball, S. (2012). Global Education Inc. New policy networks and the neo-liberal imaginary(Kindle ed.). London: Routledge.. Makes connections between profit seekingorganisations and individuals and the neoliberal agenda for education in the last twentyyears. XRef to Fairclough2003/187.

Beck, U., & Grande, E. (2010). Varieties of second modernity: The cosmopolitan turn in socialand political theory and research. The British journal of sociology, 61(3), 409443. WileyOnline Library.

Beck, U., & Sznaider, N. (2006). Unpacking cosmopolitanism for the social sciences: A researchagenda. The British Journal of Sociology, 57(1), 123. Wiley Online Library.. Such aseminal paper that it was republished in 2010: The British Journal of Sociology TheBJS: Shaping Sociology Over 60 Years: 381403.

Beck, U. (2006). The cosmopolitan vision. (C. Cronin, Trans.). Cambridge: Polity Press..Review: In the best 20 pages of the book, Beck summarizes advancements made since

the early 1990s in meeting the epistemological challenges of studying globalizationempirically

Briggs, C. L. (2003). Postmodern interviewingJ. F. Gubrium & J. A. Holstein (Eds.), (pp. 242255). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. doi: 10.4135/9781412985437

Candy, P. (1989). Alternative paradigms in educational research. The Australian EducationalResearcher, 16(3), 111. doi: 10.1007/BF03219446

Cherryholmes, C. H. (1993). Reading research.Journal of Curriculum Studies, 25(1), 132. doi:10.1080/0022027930250101

Chomsky, N., & Foucault, M. (2006). The Chomsky-Foucault debate: On human nature. NewYork: New Press.. if it is correct, as I believe it is, that a fundamental element of humannature is the need for creative work, for creative inquiry, for free creation without thearbitrary limiting effect of coercive institutions, p.3738

Creswell, J. W. (2003).Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methodsapproaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.



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Crotty, M. (1998). The foundations of social research: Meaning and perspective in the researchprocess. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin.. Read Chp 7 pp106ff

Outline of my approach is on p.5

Foundational statement of critical theory, p.99

Freire and human creativity, p.115

Feast, L., & Melles, G. (2010, 28 June - 1 July). Epistemological positions in design research: Abrief review of the literature. Unpublished paper. Connected 2010 - 2nd InternationalConference on Design Education, University of NSW.

Gibbons, T., & Sanderson, G. (2002). Contemporary Themes in the Research Enterprise.International Education Journal, 3(4), 122.

Gough, N. (2002). Blank spots, blind spots, and methodological questions in educational inquiry.Unpublished paper. Higher Degrees Summer School, Faculty of Education, DeakinUniversity.

Jensen, B. (2012). Catching up: Learning from the best school systems in East Asia. Carlton,Victoria: Grattan Institute. Retrieved from http://www.grattan.edu.au/

Kemmis, S. (2011). A self-reflective practitioner and a new definition of critical participatoryaction research. In N. Mockler & J. Sachs (eds),Rethinking educational practice throughreflexive inquiry: Essays in honour of Susan Groundwater-Smith (pp. 1129). Dordrecht:Springer.. Radical critique of the System, p.14. Definition of action research, p.13ff.Essentially, the act of continual self-and critical reflection and action is the path of schoolself improvement (from my leadership perspective. Always asking, what (more) needs to

be done? (see Kemmis2010) or how can we do it better?

Action research can emancipate the teacher from the chains of compliance and accountabilities,p.19; 24

Krauss, S. (2005). Research paradigms and meaning making: A primer. The QualitativeReport, 10(4), 758770.. Positivism is objectivist, p.761

Lincoln, Y. S., Lynham, S. A., & Guba, E. G. (2011). Paradigmatic controversies, contradictions,and emerging confluences, revisited. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (eds), The SAGEhandbook of qualitative research (4th ed., pp. 97128). Los Angeles: SAGEPublications.. #farewell to criteriology p.121.



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Neuman, W. (2006). Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Boston:Pearson.

ODonoghue, T. (2007). Planning your qualitative research project: An introduction tointerpretivist research in education. Abingdon: Routledge.

Plummer, K. (2001).Documents of life 2: An invitation to a critical humanism. Thousand Oaks,CA: SAGE Publications. doi: 10.4135/9781849208888. Chapter excerpt: The Moral andHuman Face of Life Stories: Reflexivity, Power and Ethics.

The disparity between what seems to be the intention of an interview as it is taking place andwhat it actually turns out to have been in aid of always comes as a shock.

Pring, R. (2000). The false dualism of educational research.Journal of Philosophy of

Education, 34(2), 247260. doi: 10.1111/14679752.00171

Rizvi, F., & Lingard, B. (2010). Globalizing education policy. Milton Park: Routledge.. Critiqueof the source of the concept of education as in the service of the knowledge economy,

p.8081. In a comment (p.201), I discuss a #dilemma that might be considered in my#conclusion.

through public policies the state laid out a framework which guided educational practices butdid not wholly determine them. ix

Through public policies, the state expressed its value preferences, either as an expression ofdemocratic choices of a community or in steering that communitys expectations. But weinsisted that just as policies embody particular values, so does their analysis. ix

Critical discourse analysis is helpful in providing an account of how political ideologies areauthorized through policies by locating them in the dominant popular imaginaries so thatthey are interpreted as emerging from a commonly agreed set of values. 63

public policy in the grip of #positivism - precisely the reason that post-positivist perspectivesstand to cast new light on to the subject. cf p.57



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Sachs, J. (2011). Skilling or emancipating? Metaphors for continuing teacher professionaldevelopment. In N. Mockler & J. Sachs (eds),Rethinking educational practice throughreflexive inquiry: Essays in honour of Susan Groundwater-Smith (pp. 153167).Dordrecht: Springer.

Schnelker, D. L. (2006). The student-as-bricoleur: Making sense of research paradigms.Teaching and Teacher Education, 22(1), 4257. doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2005.07.001

Silverman, D. (2005).Doing qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 302309). London: SAGEPublications.

Stronach, I. (2010). Globalizing education, educating the local: How method made us mad.London: Routledge.. Argues that the PISA and TIMSS narratives are pseudoscience anddistorting nonsense.

Chapter 3: The conflicted professional, caught between global and external economies ofperformance and more local ecologies of practice, in terms of internal commitments,p.5

Usher, R., & Edwards, R. (2000). Virtual research in performative times. In J. Garrick & C.Rhodes (Eds.),Research and knowledge at work: Perspectives, case-studies andinnovative strategies (pp. 250268). London: Routledge.

Zajda, J. (2002). Education and policy: Changing paradigms and issues.International review of

education, 48(1), 6791.. The recurring theme of #rhetoric v #reality.

This analysis brings into question the efficacy of the grand narratives of education that policyseeks to respond to and begs the analysis that #critical discourse analysis can bring.

Zajda, J. (2005). Globalization, education and policy: Changing paradigms. In J. Zajda (Ed.),International handbook on globalization, education and policy research: Globalperspectives and policies (pp. 121). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. doi:

10.1007/1402029608_1
