Examining teacher education research methodology: practices, priorities and politics

Abstract

The papers are randomly assigned in such a way that they are the next “cabs” off the rank for publication in APJTE. Our intent is to examine them in terms of the methodological practices and priorities they present for teacher education research and to launch off them into questions about what counts methodologically in the field. Of interest are research sites and participant profiles, conceptualisations of research problems and significance, research designs, including methods of data-collection and analysis and interpretation, and findings and contributions to the field. These considerations are integral to research method courses that will be familiar to many readers and form foundational methodological knowledge and skills. That being said, and in line with our Challenge #3 above, we invite consideration of these foundational principles, practices and priorities in current teacher education research as well as engagement with the politics of research, that is, critical recognition of the norms and expectations embedded in current practice. Such critical awareness helps us to generate critique and transformation of existing practices; it also enables openness to “other” ways of engaging in and with research, including ethically and culturally appropriate ways of knowing, doing and being that transcend Global South/North distinctions. In so doing, the possibility for methodological plurality in teacher education research is enhanced. In this issue, we examine seven papers for what they tell us about current methodological practices and priorities in teacher education research. Rather than the papers being presented individually, we synthesise the features that provide insights into what currently counts in teacher education research; indeed, we might see these features as methodological touchstones and reference points for researchers embarking on projects to advance knowledge, understandings and skills in teacher education in the future. The papers are as follows: