Taking on a researcher's identity: Teacher learning in and through research participation

In the wake of new educational initiatives for professional development, interest in how, when, and what teachers learn is growing. Traditionally, most research into teacher learning has been located in pre-service and in-service interventions and in studies of classroom practice. Few studies investigate how teachers learn in informal settings, particularly as research participants. Through discourse analysis, this study presents an analysis of one teacher's informal dialogues with a researcher. It describes how, by drawing from different systems of knowing, she positions and identifies herself during retrospective reflection about her current practice and goals for the future. The study demonstrates that in this particular mode of interaction the teacher learned by taking on the identity of a researcher of her own practice. The findings reinforce the importance of an ever-present question for research conducted with teachers: How do research relationships shape the identities teachers construct for themselves.