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.

1. Introduction

There seems to be a dearth in the generation of theories in the education phenomenon despite the large volumes of educational research that scholars have produced [1, 2]. The “intellectuals” generally take recourse to technicist education, which is characterized by the overreliance on technical rationality. The practitioners consider what was discovered by renowned academics to be the effective panacea to all academic ills even in situations that are apparently diverse. There is a tendency to apply the all-size-fits-all approach. The education practitioners are thus involved in miseducative practices which make the learners unaware pawns in written theories [3]. The teacher, education practitioners, both lecturers, and mentors lack knowledge about action research to the extent that they eschew it. Consequently, they adversely affect the life-long professional development of the teacher education students. The student should learn how to acquire procedural knowledge through action research.

This chapter aims at providing insights into the precipitation of agoraphobic dispositions when teacher education students are exposed to action research. The chapter is hinged on an empirical study with some teacher education students. For the clarification of issues that are in the discourse, firstly there are explications of critical concepts. The informants’ (teacher education students’) verbatim responses are then used to substantiate some viewpoints in the discourse.

2. Background

At Columbia University in the United States of America, action research was formally introduced by Stephen Cory in teacher education in the 1950s [4]. Cory as a staunch advocate of action research postulated;

We are convinced that the disposition to study … the consequences of our own teaching is more likely to change and improve our practices than is reading about what someone else has discovered of his teaching.

Cory was emphasizing on the essence of action research as far as theories can be generated by the practitioners themselves. He was encouraging the education practitioners to embrace action research as it could liberate them from the academic slavery of technical rationality and systematicity. When action research was introduced in the United States of America, it was branded to be riddled with more vices than virtues [4]. In the 1970s, there was a revival of action research and educators questioned the applicability of conventional research that was grounded in positivism in generating solutions to educational problems. Some critical education practitioners postulated that conventional research was too theoretical and too general and thus not grounded on practice [5].

The renaissance of action research in the USA came with so much vigor that it was considered to be synonymous with professional development. The importance of action research was explained;

Action research emphasizes the involvement of teachers in problems in their own classrooms and has as its primary goal the in-service training and development of the teacher rather than the acquisition of general knowledge in the field of education [4].

Action research is considered a requisite for professional development. The practitioner who embarks on action research is actively involved in the creation of knowledge about how to improve practice.

3. Agoraphobic dispositions

Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder that is manifested by a person in situations that are perceived to be unsafe for the well-being of that person. It develops when one thinks that the immanent situation is potentially prone to causing feelings of entrapment, helplessness, or embarrassment. In other words, agoraphobia is the fear of situations that are suspected to cause estrangement or embarrassment. The person affected will go to great lengths to avoid these situations [6, 7]. Agoraphobia is often, but not always, compounded by a fear of social embarrassment. In most cases, the person who experiences agoraphobia avoids the situations and stays in the comfort of his/her safe haven [8]. Due to agoraphobic dispositions, some people refuse to leave their old practices even when the old practices are no longer valuable because the fear of being outside of their comfort areas is too great.

Agoraphobic dispositions are habits of the mind or tendencies to be apprehensive of some situations [9]. Being habits of the mind, agoraphobic dispositions are precipitated by some experiences. Experience is the conscious involvement of a person in a situation or event which requires that one thinks, feels, does, and concludes at the time or immediately thereafter [10]. It is given meaning and value when one does some reflections, that is when one recaptures his or her experience, thinks about it, mulls it over, and evaluates. Thus an experience shapes one’s perceptions. The definition of perception is given as;

… the process by which people translate sensory impressions into a coherent and unified view of the world around them. Though necessarily based on incomplete and verified (or unreliable) information, perception is equated with reality for most practical purposes and guides human behavior in general [11].

Thus, perception is the viewpoint of an individual that was developed through interaction with the environment in particular situations. Through perception, the respondent gains information about properties and elements of the situation, which are critical to his or her survival [12]. The nexus between conception and experiences conjures up praxis.

4. Praxis

Praxis is about action informed by theory and the construction of theory from practice. The contemporary conception of praxis was developed from the conception of the ancient Greek philosophers who considered it as human action in the natural and social world [13]. Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher, considered praxis as transformative and emphasized on the prominence of action over thought [14, 15]. Thus, according to him, praxis is a goal-directed action. The conception has since been developed to refer to the enactment or embodiment of theory. The worthiness of the theory was determined by the extent to which it could be put into practice for the transformation of the natural and social terrain.

In the education realm, praxis is realized through the cyclical process of experiential learning that was propounded by David Kolb [16]. In other words, praxis is also considered as reflection and action focused on critical consciousness of the oppressive structures [17]. The philosophy of praxis is emancipatory since it is antithetical to one-sided counterfeit venerations of reasoning that are rampant in spheres of life like religion and intellectualism [18].

Praxis is about philosophical discourses that consider the close intertwinement of empiricism and rationalism. In other words, praxis involves knowing, acting, and reasoning [19]. In praxis, reflection is the nodal point between theory and action. Reflection makes theory valuable by enabling its contextual embodiment. On the other hand, reflection provides rationality for action. Thus in praxis, the reality is interacted with consciously with the express purpose of transforming it for the improvement of the natural and social world [20, 21].

5. Action research

Action research is a mode of research in the quest for the requisite attitudes, knowledge, and skills about how to improve one’s practice. The educator-researcher embarks on research to improve the self in terms of teaching skills, techniques, and strategies. The value of action research is in the change that occurs in everyday classroom practice. Action research can be viewed as a tool for classroom practice reforms [4].

Action research is defined as;

… a form of collective self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own social and educational practices and the situations in which these practices are carried out [22].

Thus action research is a requisite research strategy that should be employed by educators when they are learning to solve contextual problems in their working environments [23]. The educator develops introspection and is not susceptible to externalization of teaching-learning problems. Thus the essence of action research is to improve on own practice which is tantamount to sustainable professional development [24]. Action to improve on practice is connected to research. Thus research and action are done simultaneously [25].

6. Research methodology

The teacher education learners’ perceptions and experiences were empirically explored by employing the qualitative research approach. The focus was on the generation of verbal data, which were about the descriptions of the learners’ perceptions of and meanings that they gave to experiences with action research. Thus the paradigm that guided the empirical part of the chapter is hermeneutical phenomenology. The essence of hermeneutical phenomenology is to interpret the lived experiences of the informants [26, 27, 28, 29]. The data were generated through in-depth interviews which were carried out one-on-one with 16 teacher education learners. The informants were purposively selected after they had abandoned the action research, which they had initially chosen. The interview questions were pilot-tested on four teacher education learners who had attributes similar to the sampled learners. The data generated from the pilot test were judged to be trustworthy and then the interview questions were presented to the informants whose gender data are presented in the Table 1.

Informant	Male	Female
Informant 1	X
Informant 2		X
Informant 3		X
Informant 4		X
Informant 5		X
Informant 6		X
Informant 7	X
Informant 8	X
Informant 9		X
Informant 10	X
Informant 11		X
Informant 12		X
Informant 13	X
Informant 14	X
Informant 15		X
Informant 16		X

Table 1.

Informants’ bio-data.

The interviews carried out were audio-taped so as not to miss any data that were generated. The data were then transcribed and analyzed by employing the thematic approach. The data were coded according to themes that were identified and scrutinized for intra-coder consistency through reflexive, critical, and rigorous thinking guided by the Johnson-Christensen method. Thus the teacher education learners’ verbatim perceptions and experiences were categorized into themes that gave meaning to the prevailing situation [30, 31, 32].

7. Manifestations of agoraphobic dispositions

Agoraphobia is the condition where sufferers become anxious in unfamiliar situations or when they perceive that they have little knowledge about a situation is precipitated by some experiences [33]. Informant 1 met with experiences that precipitate agoraphobic dispositions. He posited:

“My research supervisor hinted that I could be putting my studies in jeopardy by embarking on action research since I was not intellectually gifted to do reflections that could contribute meaningfully to the stock of didactic procedural knowledge.”

Similar experiences were met with by informant 2 who stated:

“I was told by fellow students that I was becoming overzealous doing action research which is as of now hazy - and that in the end, I was going to meet with humiliation when I fail. Thus I decided to stop doing action research.”

8. Denigration of action research

Action research is denigrated by some education practitioners. The denigration is miseducative and causes agoraphobic dispositions toward action research. In formant 3 postulated,

“My mentor bluntly attacked me saying that action research was good for nothing. I then had to do the traditional fundamental research.”

The condemnation of action research was corroborated by informant 4 who posited:

“Though I had embraced action research, I could not pursue it during my teaching practice. The mentors belittled it as amateur research which could yield nothing more than opinions that could not be generalized.”

Further corroborative remarks were given by informant 5 who claimed:

“Lecturers do not mince their words when it comes to their preferences concerning the research type. They are blunt that they prefer that their supervisees do the traditional fundamental research which they appraise as being more organised than action research [17, 34].”

The stage of action research non-acceptance in education that was explained by the teacher education learners was once experienced in the USA in the 1950s. Action research was attacked as being unscientific, a bit more than common sense, and an amateur’s work [4]. The attack was exacerbated by the increased interest in positivist inquiry during that era. The academics exalted positivism to utopian levels of objectivity and verifiability. To some extent the situation experienced by the teacher education, students could be worse off since some influential education practitioners are skeptical about the essence of action research.

Action research is surrounded by skepticism since most of the teacher educators did not formally study action research but the traditional conventional research. Informant 6 explained how she developed agoraphobic dispositions towards action research;

“My research supervisor told me that action research is a new type of research as such very few lecturers are well versed in it. If the supervisor professes lack of adequate knowledge who am I to venture onto the academic slippery ground.”

Further remarks were given by informant 7 who asserted:

“My research supervisor advised me that action research is hardly done at higher degree level and is thus potentially difficult. Thus I was afraid to do action research since I am simply a mediocre student.”

In the same line of experiences, informant 8 gave the remarks;

“The mentors do not offer adequate support on action research. When asked about research, they readily produce the researches that they did at university or college and encourage students to plagiarize. I was left with no option but to stop doing action research.”

Some teacher educators are not well versed in both declarative and procedural knowledge about action research. Such a situation leads them to the conservatism of their traditional research orientations and vilifications of action research. Lack of adequate knowledge of academic issues evokes some agoraphobic dispositions towards that issue. The dispositions are latent in some teacher educators when they insidiously discourage teacher education students to undertake action research. Thus the action research supervisors have an influence on the perceptions and experiences of students in action research.

9. Agoraphobia from lack of praxis

In academia the separation of theory from practice makes the practitioners of education lose touch with reality. Detachment from reality begets alienation which according to Marx is the estrangement of learners from their experiential realities [35] which could subsequently cause the development of agoraphobic dispositions. The panacea to alienation is praxis which is conceptualized as the action and reflection upon the world in order to transform it [17]. Thus, the theory is used in studying the word and action uses the studied ‘word’ to interact meaningfully with the world. On the other hand, interaction with the world begets the generation of the meaningful ‘word’. Thus the word-world gulf is closed by the philosophy of praxis.

Informant 9 explained some experiences that lacked praxis and were causing agoraphobic dispositions;

“I identified a problem in teaching learners and I decided to carry out action research on the problem but my supervisor discouraged me when I was generating baseline data. She said that the whole research was going to be a fiasco. She said that the theory I learnt at college was not supported by my practicing findings.”

Praxis is regarded as the only philosophy that is based on practice [36]. It is concerned with practical reasoning which is reasoning about what should be rather than what is there in real- life experiences.

10. Agoraphobia enhancement due to lack of mathetics (learning how to learn)

The teacher should forever be a student [17]. There should never be a time of complacency and feelings of omnipotence in education since society is never at stasis. The teacher education student should always be learning how to learn in order to be an effective educator. Learning how to learn is mathetics [2].

Learning is a pedagogical activity that focuses on the acquisition of requisite skills, knowledge, and attitudes for sustainable interaction with the environment. Learning cannot take place without a bearing on the contextual realities of life. If there was an instrument that measures the extent of learning (learnometer) it was supposed to focus on how the acquired attributes can be put into practice. The teacher education learner shows that learning would have taken place if he or she is in a position to embody the learned theories and discover their contextual virtues and vices. This can be shown when one embarks on participatory action research, which has an emphasis on reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action.

In pedagogical situations, there are some pseudo-learning activities which among others are; memorizing, cramming, mimicking, plagiarizing, and reciting. These activities lack reflection but are often confused with the learning activity by most education practitioners and learners. Informant 10 exposed how he developed agoraphobic dispositions from colleagues who had not been exposed to mathetics;

“I was ridiculed at by fellow students when they were through with their traditional fundamental researches which they had plagiarised. They teased me that I was expending time and energy on research which could make me fail other disciplines as well as the research. I then thought otherwise to circumvent the imminent embarrassment.”

Situation bereft of context-based learning.

Context-based learning lies within the framework of the theory of change (ToC) [36]. The theory of change when reflected upon culminates in the action of change (AoC). The action of change is realized in action research. The practitioner is challenged to critically reflect on his or her own practices thus becoming introspective. If one is poised for the action of change, then agoraphobic tendencies should be done away with.

Agoraphobic tendencies could be precipitated when pedagogical situations are bereft of context-based learning (CBL) scenarios. The CBL scenarios are efficacious since they make references to the use of real-life examples in teaching-learning situations. Thus the learners hinge learning on their practical experiences. The efficacy of the theories that are exposed to the learners should be tested against their lived experiences. Furthermore, practical experiences should help in the development of theories [37].

Informant 11 described a situation that was bereft of contextual learning, which precipitated an agoraphobic disposition in action research;

“I was told by my lecturer that during external examination, some external examiners are hyper-critical about the processes and the findings from action research. It was stressed that findings at diploma level should be biased towards theories established already. Thus I perceived action research to be scary since my realities were not a carbon copy of theories that I learnt.”

11. Lack of awareness of conception of the laboratory school

In 1896 John Dewey, the American pedagogue philosopher experimented on the efficacy of the first laboratory school [38]. The school was the first embodiment of praxis. Dewey wanted to show the intertwinement of empiricism and rationalism in the creation of knowledge. It was Dewey’s conviction that all ideas about education should be tested empirically in the laboratory (the classroom) and reflected upon to create contextual knowledge. Dewey’s praxis orientation can be considered contemporary action research [39]. Lack of proper awareness of the essence of action research exacerbated the development of agoraphobic dispositions towards action research. Informant 12 postulated;

“I was advised by my research supervisor that if I choose to do action research, I could it to my own peril. He emphasized that nothing sensible was going to come out of my teaching experiments. I found the advice quite forbidding.”

The laboratory school was characterized by the experimentation of teaching-learning ideas and practices. The other issue focused on by the laboratory school was the relevance of the curriculum content in solving the problems experienced by the learners and society at large [40]. Taking from Dewey’s laboratory school, contemporary teacher education should discourage the practice of traditional education that is characterized by the regurgitation of facts given by the ‘educator’ or found in textbooks or the internet. The teacher education students should be encouraged to be creators of knowledge in the ‘laboratory’ which is the classroom.

The students who were exposed to monological teaching techniques are apprehensive of challenging the status quo in the acquisition of knowledge. Researching in teacher education has become confirmatory of the hunches of the renowned “educators.” Informant 13 exclaimed:

“I later on realized that I was supposed to get some anchoring of my teaching on what I was taught and how I was taught. Grappling with action research was something else. My lecturer wanted me to be his education image!”

The informant had acquired the traits of a traditional teacher. When encountered by a problem, the traditional education-oriented learner ‘researches’ from the textbooks, or the internet when instead he or she is supposed to research with the learners focusing on the context of the learners he is teaching.

The other strategy that is followed by the traditional teacher education student is absolution. The student abstains from intervening in the problem and thinks that providential intervention would bring the solution. Informant 14 postulated:

“I was once worried when I failed to teach my grade five learners a certain concept and I wanted to research on my practice. After some time I dropped the concern and I know with time all will be fine.”

12. Inadequacy of declarative knowledge for action research

The teacher education learner in a traditional education setup is by and large exposed to the acquisition of declarative knowledge which can also be referred to as descriptive knowledge, propositional knowledge, or “know that” knowledge. This type of knowledge focuses on specific facts [41]. It is content-based and could be associated with pseudo- learning activities such as cramming and memorization. Informant 15 described an agoraphobic situation derived from considering declarative knowledge on its own;

“I had to stop action research when the knowledge I had about theories of learning could not augur well with what I was experiencing with my class.”

The implication is that declarative knowledge is not adequate for teacher education which requires the learner to be an effective facilitator of learning. The worthiness of declarative knowledge is realized when it provides insights into the contextual practicing of teaching. There should be a strong bond between declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge. The dearth of knowledge from experiences or practicing begets technical rationality [42].

13. Technical rationality

One who succumbs to technical rationality relies on declarative knowledge which is acquired from external and secondary sources which are among others; teachers, textbooks, or the internet. The technical rationalist learner memorizes theories that he or she can hardly actualize or authenticate their efficacy in contextual situations. Informant 16 proclaimed;

“I don’t think that action research is for the mediocre learner. There is a lot to be done in trying to put theory into practice. One cannot profess to have concrete truth from action research. I wouldn’t want to dice with failure in my research studies.”

Technical rationality is embedded in logical positivism since its adherents have the view that social reality is objective, measurable, explained in rational terms, and reflected upon in professionalization to enrich scientific problem-solving abilities [43]. The approach of technical rationality to problem-solving is linear since it purports that there is a systematic application of tried and tested solutions to some professional problems [44]. Thus technical rationality is employed by established professions in solving problems by considering concrete technical knowledge [45].

Technical rationality forecloses reflection-in-action for the creation of procedural knowledge. It also pertains more to the scientific and objectifiable manner in which knowledge should be obtained while reflection-in-action correlates more to the application of action that practitioners employ within their given professions to attain knowledge [43].

14. Procedural knowledge

Procedural knowledge is concerned with the knowledge of how to perform a specific skill. It is also known as; practical knowledge, imperative knowledge, performative knowledge, or “knowing-how” knowledge [46]. The prime activity is practicing a skill that is focused on problem-solving in particular situations. Practicing and experiencing with reflection enhance the development of effective teaching skills [47]. In the context of the teacher education student, procedural knowledge about the skill of teaching is best developed when the student is oriented in action research which promotes practical and pragmatic rationality.

15. Practical and pragmatic rationality

The teacher education learner as a practitioner should develop both practical and pragmatic rationality. Practical rationality is the substantiation of one’s knowledge anchored on one’s reflections on own experiences. In other words, practical rationality is the intellectual capacity for resolving a problem through reflection on the actions performed [48].

Practical rationality is closely related to pragmatic rationality which is now a contemporary educational value. This rationality is antithetical to the systematicity that is inherent in traditional education [48]. It makes reference to the results that are produced out of conscious action. Pragmatic rationality requires the practitioner to actively participate in making interventions to solve a problem. Subsequently, there should be reflections on the process adopted to come up with the desired results. Pragmatic rationality is realized by reflecting in action.

16. Reflection-in-action

Schon is credited for integrating the role of science into professional practice and education through reflection-in-action [49]. Reflection-in-action entails active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in light of the grounds that support it and the further consequences to which it leads [1].

The employment of reflection-in-action in professional practice is characterized by the practitioner’s actions that show his/her desire to learn, obtain knowledge, and understand the situation that he/she works in [44]. Thus the practitioner reflects on phenomena and considers prior interpretations of knowledge that are understood and then employs this knowledge in the operation of generating new knowledge [50]. The theoretical framework in which reflection-in-action is found is reflective practice.

17. Mitigation of agoraphobia through reflective practice

Reflective practice provides the anchorage for reflecting in- and on-action when being engaged in the process of continuous learning. Thus, the continuous reflection that the practitioner does on his or her own practice promotes lifelong learning. Reflective practice involves paying critical attention to the practical values and theories which inform everyday actions, by examining practice reflectively and reflexively [51]. From the definitions above, the prime rationale for reflective practice is that experience alone does not necessarily lead to professional development but the reflection on experience. Professional development does not come about with experience but is influenced by how one reflects on experience [52].

Reflective practice can be an important tool in practice-based professional learning settings where people learn from their own professional experiences, rather than from formal learning or knowledge transfer [53]. Reflective practice is one of the most important sources of personal professional development and improvement. It is also an important way to bring together theory and practice. Through reflection a practitioner is able to see and label forms of thought and theory within the context of his or her work [54]. A practitioner who reflects throughout his or her practice does not merely review the past actions and events but makes conscious scrutiny of his or her emotions, experiences, actions, and responses to gain insights into his or her existing knowledge base so as to develop professionally [55].

The concept of reflective practice is now widely employed in the field of teacher education and teacher professional development and is the basis for many programs of initial teacher education [56]. The practitioner in education is expected to embrace reflective practice since it entails the process by which the practitioner studies his or her own teaching methods to discover the best practice of learning facilitation. It involves the consideration of the ethical consequences of classroom procedures on students [56, 57]. Reflective practice in education can be described as teacher metacognition [58].

The term reflective practice is complex since it incorporates a wide range of the practitioner’s metacognition of activities in teaching-learning situations. Teaching and learning are complex concepts, and there is no universally right approach since their effectiveness is contextual rather than global. Reflecting on different approaches to teaching, and reshaping the understanding of past and current experiences, will lead to improvement in teaching practices in particular contexts [53]. The practitioners can gain insights from Schon’s reflection-in-action since they can develop professional knowledge from their experiences in the classroom.

Reflection can be regarded as learning from experience and is paramount to the educator’s practice since it evokes awareness of being accountable. Without reflection, educators are not able to look objectively at their actions or take into account the emotions, experiences, or consequences of actions to improve their practice [59]. Through reflective practice, educators get engaged in continuous professional learning. The educators are conscientized on the essence of retrospection in their practices and reflect on how they support learners to achieve optimal learning outcomes.

Reflective practice moves teachers from their knowledge base of distinct skills to a stage in their careers where they are able to modify their skills to suit specific contexts and situations, and eventually invent new strategies [60]. Thus through reflective practice educators are able to develop themselves beyond existing theories in practice and become responsive to the dynamic environments of their day-to-day practices.

18. Conclusion

Agoraphobic dispositions in action research of the teacher education learners are precipitated by the miseducative experiences of the learners. The teacher education practitioners, the lecturers, and the mentors are the perpetrators of the miseducative experiences. They have a proclivity to traditional education, which in research emphasizes the traditional fundamental research at the expense of action research. The educators explicitly vilify action research. The learners though in the laboratory (classroom) are not encouraged to be creators of procedural knowledge. The learners are credited for exhibiting technical rationality which focuses only on the use of declarative knowledge. Instead, the learners should be encouraged to focus on practical and pragmatic rationality, which uses procedural knowledge created by them. The agoraphobic dispositions could easily be warded off when learners are exposed to mathetics (learning how to learn) in particular contexts.