A self-study using action research: changing site expectations and practice stereotypes

Practice is not created and developed by individual teachers but is subject to what Kemmis and Grootenboer called ‘extra-individual conditions’ and cultural histories. The ‘expectations’ around teaching do much to create stereotypes and conformity around how to teach and how to act in schools. This paper explores a teacher’s longitudinal self-study of pedagogical and curricular change through reflective practice and ‘insider’ action research. The findings show that pedagogical and curricular change is more than a personal desire to do something differently. Instead, it is a process of acknowledging expectation – student, teacher, institutional, and subject – and finding ways of working within, around and between these. Furthermore, insider action research is shown as a tool for positioning the practitioner in the ‘betweenness’ of theory and practice. However, the paper concludes that while insider action research is a vital ingredient in sustained curriculum renewal, it needs to be hand-in-hand with collaboration with significant others inside and/or outside the school, and it needs to engage in a critique of the extra-individual conditions as part of the reflective process.