The Action Research Game: Re-creating pedagogical relationships in the teaching internship

Abstract

This paper is an examination of the pedagogical relationships that developed within a student teaching triad that was engaged in an action research project during a sixteen-week undergraduate teaching internship. It portrays action research through the game metaphor. The action research game appears to promote pedagogical relationships among the players which are more collaborative and inquiry oriented than hierarchical and student performance oriented. Hermeneutic inquiry was the research approach employed to interpret the experiences of the cooperating teacher. intern, and faculty advisor involved in the action research project. As an openness to new horizons, this kind of inquiry attempts to develop understanding. An interpretive approach alms at excavating taken-for-granted practices in order to stimulate new insights and new possibilities. In this study, a deeper understanding of both pedagogical relationships and action research in the internship was desired. The researcher, also the faculty advisor, initiated an action research project, engaged in extended taped conversations with the participants about their experiences, and reflected on the observations and conversations to discover themes that reveal deeper meanings about pedagogical relationships and action research. © 1994, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.