Who shall do the research?
One of the assumptions built into commonplace understandings of conventional research is that it is a time-consuming effort requiring particular skill; thus, it is usually performed by persons who specialize in its methods. The role specialization of practitioner and research characterizes educational administration well. Although the field has benefited from the contrition of many individuals who have bridged both roles (Callahan, 1962;Culbertson, 1988;willower & Forsyth, 1999), practitioners and researchers in general have inhabited largely different worlds within educational administration. Their task and goal structures, work contexts, professional networks, and communication systems are different. Even more, the skills, competencies, and habits of mind required by researchers and practitioners have been thought to be different. The researcher’s role has been seen as paramount with regard to the pursuit of knowledge, and so the preparation and support of researchers 9those who produce knowledge) is intended to be different than, and more important than, the preparation of practitioners (those who apply knowledge).
This role specialization fails to capture one essential fact, which is that virtually all conventional research in education relies to some degree on the cooperation and involvement of school-based practitioners. Research simply cannot happen without practitioners, whether the partnership is in the form of data extraction agreements, where in researchers supply question and analyses and practitioners supply data; clinical partnerships, in which practitioners and researchers work together to frame questions and conduct their inquiry into the world of practice; or more symmetrical colearning agreements, in which reflexive inquiry leads to change in the home institutions and cultures of both researchers and practitioners (Wagner, 1997), Thus, assumptions about clear boundaries between researchers and others present a mere chimera.
Within the broad field of education, the notion of practitioners as inquirers has been most developed with regard to teachers. In the past two decades, a rich body of literature has developed on teacher research (e.g., Clandinin,1986; Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1990; Gosman, 1990). In part, this literature is grounded in action research and teachers’ desires to take a greater role in understanding and changing their professional practice. In part, it is grounded in a relatively new understanding that teachers are not simply recipients and consumers of research but that they actively mediate ideas, construct their own knowledge and meanings, and then take action (Richardson, 1994). In part, it is grounded in political-often-objections to the devaluation of teachers and what they know compared with the power and status of researchers and their research knowledge. As a result, “A normative conception of teacher as inquirer has evolved that provides a vision of a teacher who questions his or her assumptions and is consciously thoughtful about goals, practices, students, and contexts” (Richardson, 1994,p.6).
In contrast with the growing body of teacher research, there is little evidence of similar growth within educational administration. For example, when Heck and Hallinger (1999) describe “next generation methods” in educational administration research, there is little discussion of research conducted by administrators’ own narratives (e.g., Cooper & Heck, 1995; Dillard,1995), the presence of an external “researcher” is always assume, either explicitly or implicitly. Few studies in which school principals are primary researchers are found in the scholarly literature in educational administration. Doolittle, Nablo, and Carbone (1998) are among the few prominent examples of this small corpus of work. Anderson and Jones (2000) discuss a sample of research by school administrators, but even this set of studies illustrates some of the hurdles that must still be overcome. The studies cited are primarily dissertation research conducted as part of academic preparation programs; many of them ware conducted in settings other than the practitioner researcher’s own school, and most adopt a technical perspective, thus restricting the range of questions asked and the potential of the research for stimulating emancipatory change.
Why is there no tradition of administrator research paralleling teacher research? One reason may be that administrators, Who occupy positions of some status within their school contexts, are not as bothered by the hierarchy of research and practitioner inherent in conventional research as many teachers may be. Another reason may be that they are too overwhelmed with work requirements to have time to engage in practical research of that they simply do not care about research because they believe it has limited use for informing their practice. Finally, our more cynical side suggests that administrators do not become res