This study set out to uncover and value teachers’ understandings of teaching reading with exploratory
research questions concerned with representing teachers’ professional expertise. The data collection
methods were faithful to the social constructivist underpinnings of the research, providing
opportunities for interaction between the participants and engagement with potentially different
understandings. The collaborative experience at the beginning of the data collection process for the
participants was particularly important for me, as I wanted the teachers to have the chance to engage
with the differing perspectives shared through discourse at the whole school event. Although
collective understandings were captured in the statement set, what I did not acquire was a recording
of the conversations held between the colleagues at the whole school event. The recording of the
discussions at the whole school event would have provided further data on the collaborative
exchange of understandings. Consequently, if the study were repeated I would undoubtedly capture
this source of data.
At the beginning of my research, I was under the impression that the concept maps produced
by the participants would be a source of data that would reveal the depth of their understandings.
However, the role of the concept map became more that of a vehicle for them to talk freely rather
than a data source to interpret separately. The construction of the concept maps encouraged the
teachers to think and speak openly about their practice and beliefs.. By putting something tangible
(the statement set generated at the whole school event, Appendix 7) in front of them as they talked,
the concept maps facilitated the participants’ thinking as they explored their subjective views. The
open-endedness of the task led to responses that provided a candid portrayal of their practice. The
teachers’ views visibly altered as they considered each of the statements from the statement set, and
they constructed and reconstructed their understandings through a reflective process.
Using concept maps and the theory of social constructivism to research teachers’
understandings of the teaching of reading opened up unexpected and unknown aspects of teachers’
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teachers’ understandings and encouraging opportunities for the participants to talk freely, the
teachers became very much active participants in the research. The research questions set at the
beginning of the study were necessary for the nature of the thesis but were centred originally on
gleaning information from the participants and sharing their voices. However, an unexpected
outcome of the approach taken was that data collected was more than information to be gleaned and
shared. The data collection became a forum for the teachers to share their understandings and the
research had meaning for the participants involved. The teachers’ involvement in my study provided
not only data for my thesis but an opportunity for them to raise questions about what they teach and
how they teach in a research process that recognised them as transformative intellectuals.
Listening to the teachers making sense of their experiences with the teaching of reading has
been interesting for me, and the shape and design of my study was a contributing factor for the depth
of understanding the participants shared in the research. So much of what teachers are exposed to in
their day-to-day work concerns the question of how to teach, how to think, and policies to implement
into their existing practice, yet the methods employed for this research appear to have presented an
opportunity for the teachers to share their understandings. The nature of the task encouraged the
participants, who I would argue were conscious of their own professional development, to engage in
an activity to explore their subjective views. To some extent, the potential barriers between the
participants and me, the researcher, were removed, as they at first worked collectively as a group and
then as individuals to make sense of their practice. My research was presented in such a way that the
participants felt valued for their differing perspectives, and the valuing of my participants may have
gone some way to begin to negate potential barriers.
In my original design of the data collection methods, I considered the implications for the loss
of potentially valuable data if I did not record the voices of the participants speaking so openly about
their practice as they completed the concept maps. However, my adaptation of Kane and Trochim’s
(2007) concept mapping model to include the use of the teachers’ voices proved to be instrumental in
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construction of the maps encouraged the teachers to reveal their perceptions with honesty. As Kane
and Trochim suggest, the active process of forming concept maps stimulates both reflection and
openness. Concept mapping provided a good foundation for the teachers’ thinking and allowed them
to illustrate their understandings of teaching reading and to make connections to the whole school
shared contributions. Smith et al. (2009) suggest that good IPA studies demonstrate ‘an appreciation
of the interactional nature of data collection within the interview’ (p.180). I would argue that within
this piece of research the concept maps enhanced the interactional nature of the interviews by
stimulating and engaging the participants and augmenting the interview data into a richer and
broader data source.