RADICAL TEFL

a problematic situation, using a combination of questioning, experience (or empirical
observation), action and reflection. Enquiry works in a self-correcting spiral, and not
in a straight line, for although enquiry takes place for Dewey according to three
distinct stages, those stages (problem definition; knowledge claim & intervention; and
validation attempt) will overlap and feed back into each other in a looping way,
always open to correction. 21 Having now presented an outline of Dewey's general
theory of enquiry I will now (sec. 4) explore some implications for teacher research.
SECTION 4. DISCUSSION: SOME PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF
DEWEY'S THEORY FOR TEACHER RESEARCH
4. 1 The influence of Dewey on the teacher research movement
Dewey's theory of enquiry seems to have indirectly influenced the work of Lawrence
Stenhouse (1975: ch. 10) and so from Stenhouse, influenced the teacher research
research movement. Stenhouse is often credited within the education literature of
introducing the idea of ‘teacher as researcher’, and from which the teacher research
movement draws on, and Stenhouse conceived teacher research in a practical,
'experimental' sense: (these ideas are expanded earlier in his book)
“The idea is that … each classroom is a laboratory; and “any
educational idea … invites critical testing rather than acceptance; and:
“The commitment to systematic questioning of one’s own teaching as a
basis for development” (ibid: 142)
Stenhouse implies that such ‘critical testing’ and ‘systematic questioning’ can be
ongoing, and comprise an attitude or default stance to teaching. This broad, and
informal concept of teacher research has as its central concept ‘classroom as
laboratory’, a constant and ongoing rolling source of data collection, confirmation
and dis-confirmation of ideas, leading to new insights. Stenhouse's thinking here
seems to be similar to Dewey's, and seems to indirectly draw from Dewey's thinking,
namely that an enquirer can learn, in a self-correcting way, by being 'experimental'. 22
However, the objection can be put, what is understood by 'experimental'?
4. 1. 1 Possible objection The idea of 'experimenting' with one's students has
negative connotations. However, even in the scientific laboratory, to 'experiment' is
not always done in some ‘objectivist’ sense of controlling variables in a mechanist
and reductionist way. The Auschwitz survivor and professional chemist Primo Levi
gives an insight into a broader conception of the word 'experiment', as he describes a
scientist's (mental) thinking and questioning as he 'experiments' (For Dewey, as noted
in [1. 3], questioning and enquiry are often synonymous). Levi describes his
approach:
21 . Donald Freeman mentions the three-stage process: “the teacher-researcher identifies an issue or
problem … intervenes in the classroom setting to address that problem in some way … and then
assesses the impact of the intervention” (Freeman 1998: 28), but he does not mention a 'loop'. Chris
Brumfit refers to a loop in enquiry (drawing from Popper) in his Individual Freedom in Language
Teaching, page 184.
22
Stenhouse (1975: ch. 10) summarises arguments made in the earlier chapters. Stenhouse was followed
up by McIntyre (below), but the Action Research movement was a break away from Stenhouse, as it
relied on critical theory for an underpinning. Arguably, Dewey, Stenhouse and McIntyre make up one
(eclipsed) teacher research movement, and Action Research seems to represent another tradition. In
Appendix [B], p. 32 below, I contrast Dewey's theory of enquiry with Action Research
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