Taking a Stance: Teacher Researchers’ Historical and Political Positioning

Authors

  • Elizabeth Currin University of South Carolina

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/ie.2020.127

Keywords:

activism, teacher research, inquiry as stance, EdD programs, oral history

Abstract

With teacher walkouts and other forms of protest on the rise, EdD programs are beginning to frame practitioner-scholars’ work as activism. The purpose of this article is to explore and complicate that trend by interpreting data from oral history interviews with three long-term teacher researchers, alongside shifting historical scholarship on civil rights activism. Each participant cites civil rights activism as an inspiration and positions the rise of neoliberal education reform as a backlash to the 1960s that threatens the so-called teacher research movement. However, historians challenge the dominant narrative of the 1960s, highlighting behind-the-scenes conservative activism that did not garner the same media attention as liberal marches and boycotts. Consequently, while the participants’ stories offer abundant insight for practitioner-scholars as well as for the teacher educators who guide them, this article ultimately argues EdD activists should take a schoolhouse-to-statehouse approach.

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Published

2020-07-17

How to Cite

Currin, E. (2020). Taking a Stance: Teacher Researchers’ Historical and Political Positioning. Impacting Education: Journal on Transforming Professional Practice, 5(2), 20–25. https://doi.org/10.5195/ie.2020.127

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 2 (2020): Activating Activism: Promoting Activism within EdD Programs

Section

Themed - Activism

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