teachers working with children as co-researchers
TRANSCRIPT
India: Teachers working with children as co-researchers (ELTRP award British Council 2015)
Annamaria Pinter (with Rama Mathew and Richard Smith)
LLTA Talk: 9 March 2016
Research on, about, with and by children On
Children are passive;
Unknowing objects;
Interest in large numbers, trends and averages
Everything is adult-motivated;
AboutThere is interest in the individual learners;
Smaller groups, case studies;
Attempt to understand children but still from an adult perspective
With Children are partners in research
Perspective shift: they can contribute to some or all of the stages of the research process;
Gradually taking more responsibility
By research conducted entirely by children;
Types of roles
Children as co-investigators: from active participants to co-researchers
Children as active participants who are aware and interested
to contribute
Children as active participants who have spent some
time working alongside adults and taking responsibility
for various aspects of the research process
Children as fully fledged researchers taking full control of
the process
The project in India
Partner institution: University of Delhi,
A group of 25 teachers and upwards 800 children;
Mentors and teachers;
A series of workshops ( February 2015, September 2015, February 2016) organised to explore the feasibility of working with children as co-researchers in classrooms;
Facebook group community;
The project in India
Data: workshop activities, interviews with teachers, mentors; presentations by teachers at workshops; reflective diaries; conference presentations, interviews with the children and products from classrooms;
Children also attend workshops ( and a lot of ‘outsiders’);
Layers of research activity; (teacher educators, mentors, teachers, children);
How does it work in practice?
• Learners make choices;
• Initiate activities;
• Suggest content;
• Attend conferences with us;
• Progress on the continuum of becoming researchers;
Foci for data analysis
Children’s views about English and its role;
Children’s views about becoming co-researchers;
Tracking children’s development in English ( and teachers’ English development);
Mentors’ and teachers’ professional development;
The role of facilitators;
Appropriate research ethics;
Some links with professional development for participating teachers
Changing views about teaching and learning
Appreciating the learning community
Understanding about research and own L2 development;
Lasting change in practice/influencing others
The impact on the children
Once the project is over
Sustainability;
Products, joint publication plans and a writing workshop;
Conference talks;
The ‘impact’ plan;