Faculty Publications
Document Type
Presentation
Publication Date
April 2014
Publication Title
American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting
Keywords
Action Research, Teacher Education - Pre-Service
Disciplines
Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Teacher Education and Professional Development
Abstract
Pre-service teachers need to question their taken-for-granted beliefs and biases about their students. Hermeneutics is a philosophical perspective that uncovers the subjectivity of our perceptions and can help students understand the necessity of questioning biases. This study explored what happened when pre-service teachers undertook an action research project with their students and analyzed qualitative data with a hermeneutical stance. Data consisted of audio-recorded class dialogues about readings on hermeneutics, interviews, student papers, and pre and post surveys. The data revealed that hermeneutics helped pre-service teachers: become aware of their biases; question their initial interpretations; and assume a self-reflective stance toward teaching.
Recommended Citation
Colette Rabin and Grinell Smith. "“Without Hermeneutics I’m Stuck in My Own Thinking”: Preservice Teachers Adopt a Hermeneutical Stance Toward Action Research" American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting (2014).
Included in
Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons
Comments
Paper presented as part of the session: Exploring Action Research Approaches in the Professional Development of Educators. This paper is also available in the AERA Online Paper Repository. Each presenter retains copyright on the full-text paper. Repository users should follow legal and ethical practices in their use of repository material; permission to reuse material must be sought from the presenter, who owns copyright. Users should be aware of the AERA Code of Ethics.