Linking research to practice: Teachers as key stakeholders in mathematics education research

Abstract

Teachers are regarded as having a major role in the development of mathematics teaching and students' learning. Nevertheless, in much mathematics education research, teachers are viewed as recipients, and sometimes even as means to generate or disseminate knowledge, thus conserving a distinctive gap between research and practice. The theme of this chapter is to regard teachers as key stakeholders in research (i.e., as (co-)producers of professional and/or scientific knowledge) in order to make the link between research and practice more fruitful for both sides. After exploring the concept of stakeholder, the authors present five international examples, all of them involving teachers researching their own or their colleagues' practice. An analysis of the commonalities and differences among these examples reveals the presence of three important dimensions of research where teachers are key stakeholders: reflective, inquiry-based activity with respect to teaching action; a significant action-research component accompanied by the creation of research artefacts by the teachers (sometimes assisted by university researchers); and the dynamic duality of research and professional development. This chapter illustrates how traditional barriers between research and practice are being replaced by synergistic interactions between the two, enabling the intersection of the two worlds.