In
2006, former principal Hayley Read and acting principal Donal Mclean instigated
a project sponsored through TLRI (Teaching & Learning Research
Initiative).
The project titled 'Enhancing teachers
beliefs, knowledge and practice about bilingualism and bilingual/immersion
education through critical action research' comprised of a
partnership with a research associate team from the Faculty
of Education, University of Auckland.
Project aims
The project aims to
assist bilingual staff at Richmond Road School (RRS) to develop and apply
critical research methods to identify, critically assess, and analyse existing
strengths, gaps, and needs in bilingual/immersion, multicultural policy, and
practice at RRS.
In particular, it
aims to:
1. Identify and critically assess/analyse
teacher beliefs and knowledge about bilingualism and bilingual
education.
As teacher
practitioners, working in bilingual classrooms at RRS, what are the current
beliefs, philosophies, and theories about bilingualism, biliteracy, bilingual
education, and education for diversity that underpin our current
practice?
2. Examine indicators of best practice in
the research literature on bilingual education.
What does research
indentify as the key factors in the development of effective bilingual education
programmes and/or teaching bilingual students in classrooms, particularly with
respect to successfully achieving biliteracy (a key indicator of the academic
success of bilingual students)?
3. Develop understandings about the gap between the
theory research and practice.
To what extent do
current teacher beliefs and practices match the research indicators of best
practice highlighted in the relevant literature? To what extent scan RRS staff
continue to build a critical community of practice that allows for greater
shared, research-led understandings of, and alignment with, best practices in
bilingual education? How might this form the basis for the review or revision of
current programmes in order to further enhance the educational achievement of
students in those programmes at RRS?
4. Grow as practitioner researchers to develop research
based teaching.
As Māori, Pasifika,
and Pākehā/Palagi practitioners working together in state bilingual education.
How can we become critically empowered to reconceptualise our work and seek
deeper understandings, explanations, generalisations, and theoretical
development in order to gain autonomy over the research process and be able to
use it for our own pedagogical aims and the academic, cultural, and linguistic
imperatives of our communities and their children.
Project plan
The proposal is for
a one-year, small-scale, practitioner-led pilot action research project
involving selected members of the practitioner team, in partnership with
educational researchers, investigating and addressing central issues in creating
meaningful links between known research, school policy, and their own classroom
practice in multicultural/bilingual education. An essential goal is also the
building of teacher practitioner research capacity—a key hallmark of RRS
historically. This will allow teachers with RRS to critically reconceptualise,
examine, and theorise their own work, as well as (re)develop a critical
community of practice within the school.
Partnerships involved
A unique feature of
this project is the nature of the partnership and relationships between the
research practitioners and the research associates.
The practitioner
team comprises the principal and bilingual staff from Richmond Road School, in
partnership with a research associate team from the Faculty of Education,
University of Auckland. Professor Stephen May, from the School of Education,
Waikato University, is the outside consultant for the project. Other partners
are senior staff of The A’oga Fa’a Samoa and Māori and Pacifica elders
associated with the school.
Both teams are equal
members of the research, taking a full part in it. Both also make up the Project
Advisory Committee, which is jointly chaired by the principal of the school and
the lead liaison researcher, John McCaffery. This partnership is designed to
mentor and empower RRS practitioners to develop further the expertise in
undertaking their own ongoing research agenda and dissemination and sharing, as
a central feature of their everyday work in the school and the Aoga (Kincheloe,
2003).
Expected outcomes
Expected outcomes of
the project are to:
Publication
Download the full report from the
attachment section below |
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University of Auckland |