How do I make things better in education? The story of living myself through others as a practitioner-researcher

Abstract

The following text is a multi-media representation of an action research enquiry that utilises autobiography as a way of accounting for one educator's movement from being a classroom teacher, through middle leadership and finally into senior school leadership. I argue that I am the educator that I am because of the life I have led and the life that I am currently leading. This thesis addresses the power in enabling an educator to explore and understand the reasons behind their being and existence.

This thesis addresses the vastly important influence of relationships within education and explores how these relationships impact on my practice as an educator. The text incorporates and captures these relationships through enabling these others to speak through their own voice. This thesis essentially explores how I was able to create the shared space necessary to enable teacher-research to occur and flourish. Within this text I invite the reader to share with me the living experiences that I have had.

Education is constantly changing and moving through transitions. Within this thesis, I explore the nature of transition upon myself and how this process of change was managed as I moved through different stages of my career and life. I further explore the complex nature of school leadership and how my own living educational theory attempts to make things better for those I come into contact with. I argue that I am able to make things better because of the relationships and experiences that I have had, alongside the core values that I hold. This thesis reflects on the potential impact of enabling teachers to engage as teacher-researchers within their own school and accounts for the process I went through in order to make this happen. I further argue for the need to consider how practitioner accounts are assessed in order to ensure that the future of education is driven forward through the development of teachers as researchers influencing what educational knowledge is and how it is produced.