The purpose of this study is to understand the reality of teacher research through the voices of the experienced individuals by analyzing the 'Role Conflict' of teacher researchers experienced by teachers. As society changes, teachers are perceived as... The purpose of this study is to understand the reality of teacher research through the voices of the experienced individuals by analyzing the 'Role Conflict' of teacher researchers experienced by teachers. As society changes, teachers are perceived as an active subject that leads a change of education, not passively following contents and policies given by external. In the process of discussing the roles and professionalism of teachers demanded by modern society, teacher research and teacher researchers are highly recognized. As the dichotomy that a researcher is a theorist and the teacher is an educator in a research field has been broken, the teacher is a subject of research in their field not an object of research and furthermore, the claim is being constantly discussed that the active change of teachers is the foundation of research. However, it is required to have a critical examination on whether the current research environment experienced by teachers in practice is consistent with such claims and assumptions whereas previous studies on teacher research have focused on theoretical arguments and ideal discussions on the necessity of teacher research. While the discussion on teacher research so far focuses on emphasizing the need for teachers to study subjectively through 'Change of Practice' in the field, it was not enough to see how teachers in the field perceive and perform the research. Particularly, an empirical analysis is needed on 'Role Conflict' in formal and informal research activities both inside and outside the school taken the situation of teachers and the way of participating in actual research into consideration. Teachers are actively participating in educational research, academic research, and follow-up activities in organizations that are not related to their field, and their research is gradually increasing. The problem is that it is not easy for teachers to study their practice. Teachers in the field perform 'Researcher Roles' that follow the research tradition through academics, schools, and research institutes. On the other hand, they perform 'Practitioner Roles' for on-site improvement and change. Teachers are experiencing dilemmas and conflicts about the double roles of teacher researchers as well as role conflict. In this context, it is important to emphasize the practical value and necessity of teacher research, but it is necessary to pay attention to the experience of 'Role Conflict' by teachers along with theoretical discussion in order to find constructive direction for teacher research. Therefore, this study attempts to analyze conflicts between the role of practitioner teacher and the role of researcher experienced by teachers. The research problems set for this are as follows. First, how do teachers perceive teacher research and teacher researchers? Second, what is the conflict between the role of teacher researcher as 'Researcher' and the role of teacher researcher as 'Practitioner'? Third, what are the response and plan to overcome the conflicts as being teacher researcher experienced by teachers? The results of the study are summarized as follows. First, as a result of analyzing the research practice of teacher and perceptions of teacher researchers, teachers have found that there is 'Ambiguous Boundary' between research and practice. Teachers also applied the 'Double Standard' to the study while they recognized that the research was 'Obligatory', but 'Selective' as well. The research as the practice improvement and as the work performance were perceived as the duty of the teacher while the research as the academic inquiry, as the career path, and as the cooperative problem solving were recognized as the teacher's individual choice. Teachers regarded the teaching improvement as a top priority and conducted research in various ways depending on the purpose. Next, teachers perceived to 'Artificially Distinguish' the role of teacher researcher as researcher and practitioner. In the context of practice, 'Practitioners' take the role of teacher researcher and put more effort into creating alternative methods of the action and are more interested in technical reflection. On the other hand, in the context of research, 'Researchers' are more likely to focus on the awareness of essential aspects acting as teacher researchers and are more interested in interpretive and critical reflection. Second, the role conflict of teacher researchers experienced by teachers is divided into the difficulties of teacher researchers as 'Researcher', the difficulties of teacher researchers as 'Practitioner', the conflicts of 'Role Clash' as a researcher and practitioner, and 'Synergy Effects' and analyzed with the four groups. First of all, the difficulties of teacher researchers as 'Researcher' are experienced in the context of the research. Teachers feel the 'Skeptical about the Strictness of the Method' which is difficult to apply for field texts and research methods and have raised doubts about whether the traditional research method is suitable for their research. In addition, teachers have difficulty in revealing the narrative and reflective experiences of practice as a self-study in the research in a genuine and active way and have experienced the limit of self-reflection through researches. Therefore, the role and perspective of teacher researcher as a 'Researcher' guarantees the possibility of the transformative role of teacher researcher, but it also has limitations in the context of practice. The fundamental cause of this limitation is the lack of real satisfaction of the teachers. On the other hand, as the 'Practitioner' the difficulties of the teacher researchers appeared in the context of practice. When teachers study their practice, they have a high ideology of practice and a lack of professional confidence and call for 'Incompleteness of Practice'. Teachers were not able to pinpoint and inspect the sophisticated direction of curriculum design in terms of how effective or theoretically it was in practice. At this time, the research of the teacher was not a reflective praxis, but just a teaching act or action. In addition, teachers experience limitations of universal application due to 'Lack of Communication and Sharing' in the absence of a general network of communication and documentation culture of practice through researches. Such difficulties as a practitioner and a researcher can be summarized as difficulties in finding an integrated relationship between theory and practice, and conflicts stemming from failure to move away from traditional researchers. Next, the researcher and the practitioner showed 'Conflict due to Role Clash'. Teachers are constrained by temporal and spatial aspects and feel pressure and burden to fulfill a dual role. They also feel physical and mental extreme fatigue and experience 'Burn Out'. The images of teacher researchers are relatively negative or distorted in the field and such 'Prejudices against the Teacher Researcher' have caused agony and conflict in their identity. In addition, they experienced the limitations of harmonizing the dual role by experiencing the related conflict on 'A Career Change'. However, teachers experienced 'Synergy Effect' as well as the conflict by role clash between researcher and practitioner. The teacher tried to do 'Public Criticism and documentation' through reflection and empirical writing by conducting researches, and the teacher learned the importance of documentation. Participants became to have a researcher's point of view reinterpreted the field and gained 'An Insight into the Field of Education' by identifying the essential aspects. In the context of practitioners, teachers capture microscopic movements in the field with the micro lens, while simultaneously forming 'Local Knowledge' by looking at the phenomenon of education more broadly and diverse through the macro lens in the context of researchers. At the same time, teachers have experienced 'Self-growth' and 'Social Influence' through formal research activities and social participation. Through the research, they play the transformative role by having formed other ideology and experiencing the 'Educational Meeting' in community. Third, teachers' responses to the conflicts of the teacher researchers were analyzed as 'Prioritization of Roles' and 'Transformational Responses'. Initially, when teachers experienced role conflict, they prioritized public service and their class, and then responded to conflicts by borrowing existing research methods. Next, when confronted with the role conflict, the teachers chose the 'Role Transition' strategy that fulfills the 'Dual Role' of the practitioner and the researcher as a 'Transformational Countermeasure' or performs only one role. In addition, when faced with a role conflict that is difficult to overcome at the individual level, teachers have developed 'Collective Intelligence' to overcome conflicts in a collaborative way. Based on the results of this study, it is necessary for a future discussion of teacher research to understand the reality of teachers' research through the experience of role conflicts by teacher researchers and is required for efforts to find practical improvements. Although the role conflicts of participants in this study have already been experienced by many teachers in their research study, we have not been careful about their experience of conflict. This study of analyzing the role conflict of teacher researchers becomes a mediation to understand in-depth on the discrepancy between theory and practice of teacher research in Korea and provides useful insights for discussing the constructive direction of teacher research. In order to overcome the difference between ideal and practical teacher researcher, it should be examined what the meaning of the conflict experienced by teachers in a positive aspect is with a critical discussion on the role conflicts experienced by teacher researchers and what growth is driven by the conflict. Also, the theoretical discussion on teacher research should be reinterpreted in the reflection of the facts and the role of teacher researcher should be reexamined in terms of transformation. Ultimately, teacher research should be developed with value in its own practicality and teacher researchers should lead the change of the field through self-study while seeking the integration of research and practice.
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