One of the characteristics of education in Aotearoa New Zealand this decade is the encouragement of evidence-based teaching. Teachers are provided with evidence synthesized by others (e.g., the best evidence synthesis series), and literature reviews. Practitioner research is promoted by the government-funded Teaching and Learning Research Initiative and the early childhood education Centres of Innovation Programme. Increasingly, teachers at all levels of the system are expected to engage with and in research. Those who do are articulating a deeper understanding of learning, teaching and education. More are stimulated to read education research and about educational research. The curious ones are keen to find ‘maps’ to ease their ‘journeys’ as practitioner-researchers.
In Doing Educational Research, Carol Mutch provides a very clear map for professionals new to educational research, be they practitioner-researchers or new researchers in tertiary institutions. Mutch’s aim in writing the book was "to develop an awareness of what it means to be a competent and ethical researcher" (p.11). She also wanted to provide busy practitioners with skills, enthusiasm and confidence to embark on their own research. Her job in teacher education involves helping new researchers and her practical experience shows. I do similar work in a different context, with several teams of practitioner-researchers who have embarked on action research projects. After 2 years of data collection, they are facing the challenge of creating concepts and models to make sense of their research experiences. They welcome maps to guide them, and have seized on this practical book written by New Zealand author.
Carol Mutch provides the best maps I’ve ever encountered for those who use qualitative approaches:
- To write and implement research plans,
- To undertake different forms of analysis of qualitative data
- To interpret data and start to theorise.
And much more.
Mutch writes extremely well, her headings provide a great directory for research ‘travellers’, she sprinkles the books with engaging tales of researchers’ experiences and finishes with a comprehensive glossary. I predict this book is set to replace the hugely popular text by Judith Bell, Doing Your Research Project. That is high recommendation indeed.
Anne Meade, Ph.D.
Anne Meade Associates
This review was published in: Early childhood folio 9, 2005, p.44