Sarah Fletcher

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Sarah Fletcher

• Educational research mentor
• http//www.TeacherResearch.net
• sjfmentor_at_yahoo.com

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What is Educational Research Mentoring?

• Educational Research Mentoring or ERM developed
  from the integration of mentoring as CPPD
  (Continuing Personal and Professional
  Development) for teachers (Fletcher, 2000) and
  Living Educational Theory action research
  pioneered by Whitehead and McNiff (2004).

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Research Mentoring is

• concerned with continuing personal as well as
  professional development (CPPD) and not just
  continuing professional development.
• Fletcher, S. (2000) Mentoring in Schools A
  Handbook of Good Practice London, Taylor and
  Francis

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What is Action Research?

• any systematic enquiry conducted by teacher
  researchers to gather information about how their
  particular schools operate, how they teach and
  how well their students learn. Action research is
  done by teachers for themselves it is not
  imposed on them by someone else
• Mills, G. (2003) Action Research a Guide for
  the Teacher Educator, USA, New Jersey, Pearson
  Education

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Research Mentoring

• . should unblock the ways to change by building
  self-confidence, self-esteem and a readiness to
  act as well as to engage in ongoing constructive
  interpersonal relationship.
• (Fletcher, 2000)

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BPRS research mentoring

• A mentor not a tutor
• Collaborative enquiry
• A mentor has responsibilities
• http//www.TeacherResearch.net

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What does an educational research mentor do?

• you draw my knowledge out of me
• you ask a broad question you pick out the
  pieces from my answer and work with me on each of
  those
• You have discovered how my mind works. I
  compartmentalise everything.
• You are helping me gather my knowledge into a
  more coherent form.

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What does a research mentor ask?How do I help
you to identify your focus? How do I help you
to audit as a starting point? How do I help you
map out possibilities for action?How do I help
you to collect data in rigorous and systematic
ways and synthesise data to evidence?How do I
keep you on track with your project?How do I
help you to disseminate your research?
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What does a research mentor ask?

• What matters most to you as a creative teacher?
• How do you teach best and how can you teach even
  better?
• In your work as an teacher, what is your main
  concern?
• How can you live out your professional values
  more fully?
• What can you do to become a more professional
  teacher by helping colleagues to learn with you
  and to teach you?
• How can you help your students to learn in
  lessons?

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Roles and Responsibilities

• Professional skills and aptitudes
• Professional values
• Professional knowledge and
• understanding
• Christie et al. (2003) Chartered Teacher Scheme
  in Scotland, BERA presentation, Edinburgh

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Technology in research mentoring

• Whole group sessions face to face
• Individual sessions face to face
• Telephone mentoring
• Video mentoring
• E-mentoring
• Collaborative web-page construction individual
  and group

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Research mentoring is

• Generative

Teachers
Students
Academics
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Case Studies Students Research Mentoring

• Hayesfield School, Bath
• Westwood St Thomas, Salisbury
• Bishops School, Salisbury

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Why integrate mentoring in action research?

• Action research is formulaic when you restrict
  personal and professional interrelationships.
• Mentoring helps students, teachers and partners
  develop creative relationships with one another.
• Action research can sometimes be a solitary
  experience but mentoring builds supportive
  networks for building collaborative creativity.
• Mentoring students and teachers skills, values,
  knowledge and understandings develop. These are
  the core areas for creative engagement.

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• Using digital photography to evidence claims to
  know
• Is becoming a widely accepted technique in
  school-
• based enquiry (Fletcher and Whitehead 2003)
• Web-based templates at http//www.cfkeep.org
• are changing perceptions in practitioner
  research.
• Embedded web-based Critical Thinking Scaffolds
• (Fletcher and Coombs, 2005) ensure that
  practitioner
• research is sloughing its homespun, rather
  parochial
• history and evolving an altogether more
  professional
• image in the field of evidence-based practice.
• (Fletcher, 2005 23)