Promotieonderzoek van bètadocenten op het grensvlak van onderzoek en onderwijsinnovatie : een studie van 'good practices'

Teacher researchers engaged in PhD research can contribute to an exchange of knowledge between educational researchers and teachers working in teaching practice. It is assumed that doing PhD research by teachers helps in bridging the social boundaries existing between the world of teachers and the world of researchers. In 2007/2008 a group of 19 science teachers from secondary education started a PhD project in the so-called ‘DUDOC PhD Research Programme’, in which they combined their job as a teacher with a new job as a teacher researcher in subject-specific didactics. From this group, two teacher-researchers were selected as subject for an investigation of their good practice in successfully integrating research and teaching. For this purpose, the research projects of both teacher researchers and data from interviews with stakeholders in both work environments of the teacher researchers (students, school colleagues, school principals, research supervisors, and the teacher researchers themselves) were analysed. It is concluded that PhD research by teachers can indeed contribute to ‘boundary crossing’ between research and teaching, in particular through the ‘principle of coordination’ (Akkerman & Bakker, 2012), in which so-called ‘boundary objects’ are used to connect both work environments. Conditions for realising such a connection are specific qualities of the teacher-researcher and a development-oriented school culture