Researching With/For Whom? Stepping in and out of Practitioner Research

Abstract

Practitioner research is defined as systematic inquiry-based efforts directed towards creating and extending professional knowledge and associated understandings of professional practice. A review of ‘primary research’ articles published in the Australian Journal of Early Childhood revealed that only a small number involved early childhood practitioners as researchers. However, changing social and theoretical constructs and a sense of low regard by the community for the profession require early childhood practitioners to be much more articulate about their practices. Collaborative inquiry processes provide opportunities for practitioners to deconstruct some of the taken-for-granted practices found within many early childhood services. One of the benefits of such inquiry is an increased sense of empowerment gained by practitioners through greater insights into their own professional knowledge, their increased capacity to work more effectively with children, and their increased ability to communicate more professionally and effectively with parents and other professionals.