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Critical Praxis Research pp 167–180Cite as

Making Space for Praxis: Reflection on Research with ESL Teachers

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Part of the book series: Explorations of Educational Purpose ((EXEP,volume 19))

Abstract

As teacher researchers we must reflect on our practices in order to deepen our understanding of the world and our potential participation in it. In this chapter Elizabeth Robinson reflects on and analyzes her research process. Drawing on the central components of Critical Praxis Research (attention to purpose, identity, and context) (Kress, this text). The author analyzes her study of two urban ESL teachers. Keeping these components in mind she explains how her own frustration as a teacher and with education research led to her research questions. These questions focused on how the two teachers engaged with different discourses of education research in different contexts and for different purposes over the period of 5 years. The author also examines how her evolving theoretical understandings of poststructural feminism led to ethnographic research methods focusing on the collaborative construction of knowledge. This reflection has provided a greater understanding of how who she is informs the work she does with teachers within complex and nuanced “third spaces” to connect research and classroom practices.

Contributed by Elizabeth Robinson.

It is in “distancing ourselves” from the object that we “come closer” (Freire, 1998, p. 93).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Savin Hill Ave. 144, Apt. 2R, 02125, Dorchester, Massachusetts, USA

    Prof. Tricia M. Kress

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  1. Prof. Tricia M. Kress
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Correspondence to Tricia M. Kress .

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Kress, T.M. (2011). Making Space for Praxis: Reflection on Research with ESL Teachers. In: Critical Praxis Research. Explorations of Educational Purpose, vol 19. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1790-9_12

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