THE TYRANNY OF THEORY AND THE STRANGLEHOLD OF PARADIGMS THE TYRANNY OF THEORY AND THE STRANGLEHOLD OF PARADIGMS The role of research methodology and theory in Teacher Research

This chapter presents a further reconsideration of the role of research methodology in practitioner writing and the avoidance of dogma in the presentation of theory. It arises from the experience of reading well over two hundred master’s dissertations and Ph.D. theses during the past two or so years. The views have become increasingly pertinent because they provide a commentary on the ‘Best Practice’ developments of the DfEE, which invoke ‘research by teachers ’ as if it is not problematic. Like the ‘Best Practice ’ proposals, all the dissertations and theses were defined in terms of ‘doing research ’ but the outcomes occasionally wandered some distance from the usual definitions of research. Peter Foster (1999) reviewed the TTA teacher researcher outputs, which were the fore-runners of the Best Practice proposals, using three criteria: clarity, relevance and validity. He found that about 20 % (5 out of 25) he would not classify as research since they ‘did not seem to be projects in which the key goal was the production of knowledge’. Their data collection ‘did not appear to be particularly systematic or extensive’, they were ‘ personal descriptions, or justifications, for their own practice’. Foster goes on t