Agoraphobic Dispositions towards Action Research: Teacher Education Students’ Perceptions and Experiences

Abstract

One of the contemporary global education thrusts in teacher education is the generation of context-based theory through engagement in action research. While practicing in the classroom, the teacher education student is essentially in the laboratory creating procedural knowledge. Action research in the classroom involves reflective practice, which is indispensable to praxis. Despite the efficacy of action research in facilitating mathetics (learning how to learn), there are some militating situations that are fuelled by diehard traditional perceptions and practices. An exploration of teacher education students’ perceptions and experiences with action research was done with 16 informants who were selected purposively and exposed to in-depth interviews. The data were thematically analyzed and the findings were that some students develop agoraphobic dispositions toward action research due to some miseducative experiences that are largely attributed to traditional educational practices. The teacher education students are exposed to vices like technical rationality instead they should be oriented toward epistemic and pragmatic rationalities that are the linchpins of professional development. The experiences that precipitate agoraphobic dispositions in action research should be known and subsequently obliterated.