Career Turning Points: How educational research is influenced by teachers

The careers of seven educational researcher-developers were compared to determine what factors were most influential in forming and changing intellectual orientation. Of particular concern was the degree of influence that might come from intensive interactions with teacher practitioners. Five turning points were identified in which different influences were dominant. The initial decision to enter graduate work reflected a desire for advancement, a diminished interest in the undergraduate field of concentration, and a dissatisfaction with the early experience of teaching in that field (high school mathematics or science) The subsequent decision to center the career on applied educational research was influenced by the intellectual environment of the graduate school, including coursework, reading, and interaction with professors and fellow graduate students. Third, a commitment to cognitive studies of student learning in the classroom was governed largely by involvement with a major professor who became mentor, thesis advisor, and co-author of the first publication. Fourth, the scholar becomes a major player, able to implement and disseminate his/her ideas through multiple publications and presentations as well as through the development and widespread testing of products intended to improve aspects of (elementary school) classroom learning. Influences here are substantial intellectual reinforcement from an international community of like-minded colleagues and substantial funding of the scholar's R&D program, usually from the federal government. At a fifth turning point only, with the career fully established, do we begin to see substantial influence coming from intensive interactions with individual teacherpractitioners, often in conjunction with a realization that theoretical ideas and their product offspring are not working out as intended in the classroom.