Initiating teachers’ action research: Empowering teachers’ voices

The role of a teacher as an action researcher in Croatia is still insufficiently appreciated and promoted in initial teachers' training, school students learning and in the employed teachers’ professional post-qualification development. In our country teachers are most frequently perceived as mediators or technicians whose task is to prepare and implement the tuition based on instructions devised by out-of-school experts. Their role is more artisan-like, being less professional and creative.

To change this situation in our context I invited 18 teachers from several elementary schools to join and start an action research project with the main question: “How to help teachers to become reflective practitioners and action researchers?” The Project started in spring 2000 and officially finished in spring 2002. Unofficially we have never finished the project.

We divided the project into two parts. In the first part we ran ten workshops, the aim of which was teachers learning and practicing new skills. We dealt with themes such as confronting the risk of change, reflective teacher, multiple intelligences and the vision of future schools. My role during that period was predominant. This fact was in contradiction with my values (emancipation) but that was in tune with the expectation of a teacher. During that period teachers visited and discussed each other’s lessons. The first part of the project was an easier and more appropriate way of professional development for more teachers, but they were less responsible for the preparation and realization of workshops. They participated in previously prepared activities. In the second part of the project we started with teachers’ action research projects.  While the role of the action researcher was impossible for most members of the community, some of them were able to conduct their action research and improve their practice.