Real lessons from imaginary teachers

Abstract

The piece that follows had its first hearing as part of a symposium at the 1990 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in Boston. Sigrun Gudmundsdottir and Grace Grant were at the podium, presenting their two narrative accounts of one schoolteacher’s practice. The schoolteacher was present as well, through the medium of a 10‐minute video presentation of her perspective as a research participant. My task as discussant was to bring the three different accounts of one teacher’s practice together, partially reconcile their differences, and thereby teach us all something about the possibilities and limitations of qualitative research on teaching.

At this early point in her academic career, Sigrun Gudmundsdottir showed a good deal of professional courage. She invited us to re‐examine critically her doctoral research project, something that few of her peers would have agreed to do. Her stance, it seemed to me, was ‘Let’s see what more we can learn about good teaching through a critical, public examination of this work’. Sigrun’s stance remains a worthy model for all of us today.

Keywords:

• Context effects
• Multiple interpretations
• Qualitative inquiry
• Reliability
• Researcher expectations

Acknowledgements

This paper was originally presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Boston, 1990, and first published in the Journal of Curriculum Studies (1991), 23 (5), 429–433. It is reprinted here with the permission of the author and Taylor & Francis Group Ltd.

Notes

* University of Delaware, USA. Email: [email protected]

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christopher M. Clark *

* University of Delaware, USA. Email: [email protected]