More than ever, teacher research matters. Members of a long-term teacher research group share specific suggestions for how belonging to such a group can help sustain and re-vitalize teachers, especially in the current complicated and often unsupportive educational landscape.

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The Port in Our Storm:
Why Teacher Research? Why Now?
Members of the Eastern Michigan Writing Project Teacher Research
Group: Jessica DeYoung Kander, Cathy Fleischer, Kris Gedeon, Karen
Hoffman, Dave Kangas, Pam McCombs, Sara Primeau, and Susan
Schneider

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Teacher Research is…
[an] educational movement, research genre, political
and policy critique, challenge to university culture, and
lifelong stance on teaching, learning, schooling and
educational leadership.”
(Cochran-Smith and Lytle)

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Teacher research is…
 Teachers asking questions based in their own
contexts, wonderings about how they teach and how
their students learn
 Teachers collecting data (through observational logs,
surveys, interviews, artifacts) to answer those
questions
 Teachers systematically analyzing and reflecting on
their data
 Teachers making change in their teaching as a result
of their findings
 Teachers sharing with others the results of their
findings

4. +
Why Is It So
Important Right
Now?
Our classrooms are under siege.
We feel the flames. And, as
teachers, we’re afraid our students
will become the casualties. We’re
bombarded by national educational
policies, state assessment
mandates, regional curriculum
demands, and community
competition about competencies and
for resources….We need to make
our voices speak through the fire and
invite the noisy public to listen.
When we speak as teachers
informed by our own research, we
can control the fires and inform the
noisy public about what works in our
classroom. …systematic inquiry is
both a form and a method for teacher
resistance and teacher agency.
According to well-known
teacher researchers
Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater
and Bonnie Sunstein….

5. +
Eastern Michigan Writing Project
Teacher Research Group
 15 years and counting!
 Who we are:
 Teachers across grade level: from elementary, secondary,
college
 Teachers with varying degrees of experience: from newbies
to long-time practitioners
 Teachers across the subject area: mostly ELA, but math, too.
 Why we come together to meet every month?
 To learn how to conduct teacher research
 To get feedback from like-minded teachers on a similar
journey
 To share with others, to feel our work matters

6. Why and How our TR matters to us
Four groups that you can visit today in
roundtable fashion:
 Each group will talk about the ways in which TR
has helped them.
 You can visit 2 groups: 20 minutes in each.
 Then, we’ll come together and talk.

7. Topic 1: How teacher research helps us gather a range of data, informs
our teaching, and thus gives us the confidence to speak to others (other
teachers, administrators, and parents):
Kris Gedeon and Jessica DeYoung Kander
Topic 2: How teacher research helps us create a community of support,
different from other professional development (especially for those who
don’t have support systems within their schools):
Dave Kangas and Susan Schneider
Topic 3: How teacher research serves as a mentoring model, helping us
bring a collaborative approach to other parts of our professional lives:
Pam McCombs
Topic 4: How teacher research helps us in our long-term commitment to
the profession, by encouraging a sustainable mindset to our teaching:
Karen Hoffman and Sarah Primeau

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Surviving and Thriving
 What ideas have you learned today that you might
take back to your own school, district, communities?
 How might a teacher researcher approach help you
survive and thrive?
 What might be your first steps?

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Who we are:
Today’s Participants:
 Cathy Fleischer: College English education and writing: Eastern Michigan University
 Kris Gedeon: High School English, Britton-Macon Community Schools
 Karen Hoffman, Middle School ELA, Livonia Emerson
 David Kangas: High School English, Wayne Memorial
 Jessica DeYoung Kander, Lecturer in Children’s Literature, Eastern Michigan University;
 Pam McCombs: College instructor in Children’s Literature and writing, Eastern Michigan
University
 Sarah Primeau: College writing instructor, Eastern Michigan University
 Susan Schneider: High School math, Ann Arbor Huron
 Other teacher researchers in our group: Tracy Anderson: High School English and
Journalism, Ann Arbor Community, Ellen Daniel: Middle School ELA, Ann Arbor Scarlett,
Lisa Eddy: High School English, Adrian