Learning Communities in Educational Partnerships - Action Research As Transformation

List of contents

Foreword, Etienne Wenger-Trayner
Acknowledgements
Glossary
Introduction
1. A Professional Partnership, Máirín Glenn
2. Action Research as the Glue in Professional Learning Partnerships, Máirín Glenn
3. Learning Communities as Sites of Transformation, Bernie Sullivan
4. A Theoretical Explanation of the Practical Significance of Learning Communities, Bernie Sullivan
5. Professional Conversations as Integral to Self-Study Action Research for CPD, Mary Roche
6. Initial Teacher Education and School/College Partnerships: The Potential role of Self-Study Action Research, Mary Roche
7. Tapping into Experiential Knowledge in Whole-School Communities, Caitriona McDonagh
8. What's in This For Me? - From the Perspective of Participating Teachers, Teacher Educators and Leaders, Caitriona McDonagh
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

About the author

Máirín Glenn works in Co. Mayo, Ireland as a primary teacher where she is a teaching principal. She holds a BEd from St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, Ireland. She completed her MEd (ICT in the Primary Curriculum) with Mary Immaculate College, Ireland in 2001 and was awarded a PhD from the University of Limerick, Ireland in 2006. She also works as a tutor on postgraduate programs with St. Angela’s College, Sligo, Ireland, St. Patrick’s College, Dublin, Ireland and Hibernia College, Ireland. In recent years, she has been involved in promoting action research as a research methodology and is particularly interested in the use of technology as a means of developing a more holistic approach to teaching and learning.Mary Roche is a Lecturer in Education at an ITE college in Ireland. A primary teacher for many years, Mary holds an MA in Education from UWE Bristol, UK (2000) and a PhD from University of Limerick, Ireland (2007). She has taught at undergraduate and postgraduate level in several academic settings. She is author of Developing Children’s Critical Thinking through Picturebooks (2015) which received an award from the UKLA Academic Book Award committee 2015. Her research interests include Self-Study Action Research, Philosophy with Children, Critical Pedagogy, Critical Literacy and Teacher CPD. She has worked with Education Centres nationally providing in-service professional development for teachers in creating dialogical and critical classrooms, and has developed resources for National Council for Curriculum Assessment (Aistear Toolkit). Mary has presented and keynoted at several conferences both nationally and in the UK, and has published in RAI journal (2010); OMEP journal (2010), EARJ (2011) and International Journal for Transformative Research (2014).Caitriona McDonagh is living in Ireland. Having spent many years as a primary teacher, she now works with many colleges/universities on action research and school placement modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. She holds an MA in Education from UWE Bristol, UK (2000) and a PhD from University of Limerick, Ireland (2007). Her research interests include special education and social justice. As a member of several groups, she is deeply involved in professional development projects for teachers. She has delivered professional development initiatives for both the Department of Education and Skills’ Special Education Support Service and for the Dyslexia Association of Ireland. She is the author of How do I Improve my Teaching of Children with Dyslexia?: a living theory of learning to teach for social justice. (2009).Bernie Sullivan is a former principal of a primary school in Dublin, Ireland. She has worked as a tutor for second-level student teachers on school placement with St. Patrick’s College, Thurles, Ireland. She currently supervises action research projects in Mathematics teaching for postgraduate students at the University of Limerick, Ireland.

Summary

Learning Communities in Educational Partnerships shows how theory and practice come into lived interplay in social spaces where theory informs practice and practice turns into theory. Drawing on their own experiences of becoming a learning community, the authors introduce the ideas underpinning self-study action research. Through a series of first-hand practitioner accounts, the chapters describe and explain how to engage in processes of inquiry and establish learning communities, how to make space for professional conversations and how to develop living theories from within daily practice.

The book shows how meaningful change can take place, both in educational improvements and also in more transformative professional learning, when educators are encouraged to draw on their own personal educational values and share their idea

Foreword

Demonstrates the potential power of self-study action research and learning communities as a form of professional learning in educational communities by drawing on real examples from educational partnerships.

Additional text

This book speaks to the very heart of what it is to be a professional learner. It challenges readers to rethink how we individually and institutionally engage with our own learning, with the learning of those we teach and of all those with whom we connect throughout our educative journey. Because this book transcends the superficial and engages with communities of learners from a lived, meaningful and values based perspective, it offers not the typical prescriptive text, but one that is far more significant with real potential to open up the hearts and minds of learners and teachers across the globe. It offers an important differing voice to current trends in education that tend to eclipse the value of practitioner knowledge and experience. In so doing it gives voice to the growing movement of practitioners whose experience and insight are indispensable for meaningful education theory worldwide.

Product details

• Authors: Dr Mairin Glenn, Dr Mairin Roche Glenn, Maairain Glenn, Mairin Glenn, Máirín Glenn, Caitriona McDonagh, Dr Caitriona McDonagh, Dr Mary Roche, Mary Roche, Mary Glenn Roche, Bernie (University of Limerick Sullivan, Dr Bernie (University of Limerick Sullivan
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.11.2017
• EAN: 9781474243575
• ISBN: 978-1-4742-4357-5
• No. of pages: 200
• Series: Bloomsbury 3PL
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Education > School education, didactics, methodology; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general)