Teachers as an Audience for Research: the acceptability of ethnographic approaches to classroom research

Teachers play an important role in the nature of research which is undertaken in classrooms. They are not only ‘gatekeepers’ controlling access by outside researchers, they are also increasingly responsible in their own right for producing research. Addressing these points, this paper focuses on schoolteachers as an audience for research. It argues that the kind of attitudes and skills engendered by working in classrooms corresponds more with certain approaches to research than to others. Specifically, there would appear to be a congruence between teachers' classroom management skills and the demands of ethnographic approaches to research. This congruence is explored both in terms of the ‘intellectual baggage’ teachers are likely to bring to their reading of research and in terms of the practical advantages offered by ethnographic research for teachers who are faced with the need to undertake their own educational research. However, the paper also stresses that the affinity between teachers' classroom management skills and the demands of ethnographic research provides no guarantee that, when faced with the need to undertake their own research, teachers will opt for an ethnographic approach. Not only are there limitations to the congruence with ethnography, there are also competing practical demands associated with the production of research in classrooms. Both factors can deter teachers from undertaking ethnographic research and effectively encourage them to choose some alternative approach when their role becomes one of producing research.