Conference Agenda

Emerging variations of action research, lesson study, reflective practice and teacher research grow out of values, purposes and perspectives of different stakeholders at different times. From the perspective of an individual teacher these practices are conceptualised as a process of understanding and improving one’s own teaching methods; from the school-wide perspective, it is to form a collaborative learning with an aim to create local shared knowledge and building the trust among teachers, supported by the conscious commitment of school administration.

Despite being in the early stages of implementation in Kazakhstani comprehensive schools, with its introduction only in 2016, action research has become an integral part of the teacher appraisal system and teacher qualification process. Kazakhstani teachers aspiring to be recognised as “teacher-researchers” and “master teachers” are required to engage with action research. This innovation signifying a notable departure from traditional beliefs and practices in the education system. However, there is a gap between the expectations outlined in policy documents and teachers’ understanding of action research, as it is not adequately covered in teacher education and professional development courses struggle to keep pace with the changes. Hence, the success and sustainability of these changes face challenges unless the necessary conditions are established in schools.

In 2019, the School Hub for Action Research in Education (SHARE) project was introduced in 22 comprehensive schools in Astana city, aimed at establishing a school hub to share practices and ideas, fostering teacher leadership in development through action research. The SHARE was established on four main concepts: 1) employing action research methodology to help teachers to reflect about daily practices, 2) facilitating understanding of changes in teaching and learning, 3) fostering the development of teacher leadership, 4) establishing conditions for collaborative professional learning.

The project was led by Professor Colleen McLaughlin, Emirates Professor of the University of Cambridge, Kate Evans, Ex-principal of Bottisham Village School, and Dr Nazipa Ayubayeva, an advocate of action research in Kazakhstan. The project was supported by the Mayor of Astana city and was coordinated by the Astana Department of Education’s Center for Education Modernisation. The successful implementation of the project was facilitated by three-year (2020-2023) financial commitment from Astana Department of Education. Additionally, the project coordination, led by Roza Shayakhanova, co-authored this article, from the Center for Education Modernisation, played a pivotal role in building effective communication among schools with diverse expectations and commitments. Moreover, an essential requirement of the SHARE was the compulsory involvement of school principles. However, unforeseen changes, introduced in 2021, in policy regulations governing the rotation of schools’ principles had a substantial impact on the project. In the third year of SHARE, only five principals retained their positions in their original schools; three principals were reassigned to schools involved in SHARE; another three principals who had been rotated to new schools became ambassadors of the initiative and contributed to the expansion of SHARE by joining the initiative; yet another two completely new schools joined SHARE motivated by the interests of their principals, who in turn had learned about the SHARE at the exchange-conferences. Although, this organic growth in participation reflects the positive impact of networking in the education community, there are few schools that have chosen not to continue with the SHARE beyond the initial three-year commitment.

As such, it was crucial for the authors of this paper to explore the teacher-participants’ perception about the sustainability of the project beyond the financial commitment and school principals’ decision. This exploration is essential for assessing the project impact on establishing a sustainable network of action researchers who collaborate, share practices, and contribute to ongoing teacher professional development.

Introduction

In recent years, due to the continuous improvement of global education quality, teachers have been given higher expectations. The responsibilities and workload of teachers have also increased in the short term, while their rest time has been continuously reduced due to heavy teaching tasks (Hargreaves, 2003). As a result, teachers experience feelings of anxiety under long-term pressure, which can affect their teaching work and even lead to professional burnout (Jennett et al., 2003). Research has shown that environmental conditions can affect an individual's sense of self-efficacy (Schunk & Pajares, 2002). Furthermore, a teacher's self-efficacy can further influence various aspects of their professional development, such as their use of teaching strategies and attitude toward innovation (Gibbs, 2003; Klaeijsen et al., 2018).

This study utilized a quantitative approach and focused on primary school teachers in Chongqing, China. It investigated the perceived school environment, anxiety, and self-efficacy of these teachers to explore the impact of different aspects of the school environment on teacher anxiety, as well as the dynamic changes in their emotions under the influence of self-efficacy.

Theoretical Framework

The school environment as perceived by teachers refers to their experience of school life and reflects the goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices, and organizational structure of the school. Previous studies have categorized school environment into five aspects: collaborative teaching, teacher-student relationships, school resources, decision-making involvement, and teaching innovation (Johnson et al.,2007).

Bandura’s concept of self-efficacy reflects an individual's belief in their ability to perform a specific behavior or activity at a certain level before engaging in it (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001). Teachers' self-efficacy primarily stems from four sources: mastery experience、vicarious experience、social persuasions、physiological and affective states. Among them, the mastery of experience mainly comes from individual's past performance and achievements, which is the most influential source of self-efficacy.

Emotions are an important component of individual's psychological well-being and are commonly present in teachers' teaching activities, influencing teacher burnout, teacher turnover, and teaching quality. Teacher emotions include enjoyment, anger, anxiety, pride, guilt and shame, boredom, pity, etc (Frenzel et al., 2009). The study primarily focuses on anxiety, specifically the anticipation of future danger, which includes cognitive components such as attention, worry, or problem-solving, as well as physiological components like sweating and insomnia. According to the Control-Value Theory, if a teacher feels that they only have partial (moderate) control over an event and they are afraid of failure, they will experience anxiety.

Research has shown that pre-service teachers experience an increase in their self-efficacy after gaining early teaching experience (Morris et al., 2017; Tschannen-Moran & McMaster, 2009). However, novice teachers may spend a significant amount of time focusing on their own teaching and have limited participation in collaboration with other teachers, making them more prone to anxiety (Chapman, 1988). Previous studies have explored the relationship between teachers' overall perception of school environment and their self-efficacy, but there is limited research on the specific impact of different aspects of school environment on teacher anxiety and the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and their emotional state.

Based on theories and previous empirical results, this study puts forward the following hypotheses.

H1: Collaborative teaching, teacher-student relationships, and innovative teaching significantly and positively influence teachers' self-efficacy.

H2: Collaborative teaching, teacher-student relationships, school resources, and involvement in decision-making significantly negatively affect teacher anxiety, while teaching innovation positively affects teacher anxiety.

This paper explores the challenges and affordances of a national-scale scheme, funded by the professional regulator for teachers in the Republic of Ireland, which was designed to partner university-based researchers with schools to support teachers’ engagement with research on problems of practice.

Engagement with research has long been a widely-held ambition for the teaching profession (BERA-RSA 2014; OECD 2022), but routes to developing capacity for research engagement have been difficult given the competing demands of teaching and the cultural norms with respect to research use (Malin et al. 2020).

There has been extensive writing for over a century on a “theory-practice” or “research-practice” gap (Dewey 1904; Korthagen & Kessels, 1999; McGarr et al. 2017). Teachers can perceive a hierarchy where theory is ‘aloof within the ivory tower, espousing ideals and the principles that govern them’ (Smagorinsky, Cook, & Johnson, 2003, p. 1399), and practice has little reciprocal impact on theory (Knight, 2014). There is a recognition that one element to resolving this gap is recognising the dialogic relationship between research/theory and practice. That is to suggest that teachers’ engagement with research ought to be rooted in relevant problems of practice that teachers are motivated to address, and that evidence-informed practice involves contextual adaptation of research; sometimes known as practical theorising (McIntyre 2005). Such practical theorising in professional learning can be supported through relationships with university-based researchers (Burn & Harries 2021).

There is good evidence to support the benefits of collaboration between teachers and university-based researchers (Jones et al. 2022). Researchers in universities are well positioned to provide support to a school if they are well matched on the area of expertise relevant to the school’s interest area or problem of practice (McLaughlin & Black-Hawkins 2007). Of course, the professional realities of teachers and academic researchers are quite different. Their skills sets and needs will also differ. The differences may be complementary and mutually supportive (Cai et al. 2018), but there also needs to be attention paid to how collaborative endeavours address their differing professional needs.

The ongoing sustainability of partnerships also requires attention; Often such collaborative projects are funded through research grants awarded to university-based researchers or universities into which teachers or schools are recruited (e.g., Hamza et al 2017). It is far rarer to have a funded programme at a national scale to support teachers to explore problems of practice in partnership with an experienced educational researcher but, where these have existed, the impacts have been positive. For example, Simons et al. (2003) observed overwhelming testimony of teachers in the value of the experience, a rediscovery of professional confidence, a growth in familiarity with research practices situated in teachers’ own contexts.

The policy direction in the Republic of Ireland has placed increasing importance on the use of research in practice (Murphy 2020). As part of this, the professional regulator for teachers (the Teaching Council) has implemented a range of initiatives to support teachers’ engagement with and in research. This paper explores one of these initiatives, the Researchers in Residence Scheme (RiRS). The scheme was intended to promote teachers’ ongoing learning through exploring existing research in their school context. This may, for example, be through interrogating, synthesising, sharing, and applying research in their practice. Each school was partnered with a university-based researcher to support their engagement with research. This paper reports initial findings from a project which sought to understand the challenges and affordances of the RiRS scheme for all stakeholders involved. The findings have the potential to be informative across European contexts where there is potential to initiate funding schemes and partnerships.