Creating a dialogical and critical classroom: reflection and action to improve practice

Between 2001 and 2007 I conducted a self-study action research enquiry into my practice as a primary school teacher. The research had a collaborative aspect to it, in so far as my pupils and colleagues were invited to participate in the research, although I was the focus of the enquiry. I was unhappy about my teaching: I felt I dominated the discourse in my classroom and that my didactic teaching style did not encourage my pupils to think critically. I wanted to create a more dialogical and critical form of pedagogy. Through active and developmental reflection on my practice, and research into dialogical pedagogies that would support my aims of encouraging children to be critical thinkers, I gradually reconceptualised my own identity as a reflective and critical thinker. I began to challenge dominant orthodoxies that have traditionally determined who is seen as a knower in a primary classroom and who is seen as an educational researcher. I explain the significance of my research for my own educational development, for my institution, and for the wider educational community, as I clarify the developmental and reflexive processes of my capacity to theorise my practice.