Student achievement is highly correlated with having qualified teachers who feel empowered and motivated to provide quality education for their students. Such teachers should be in every classroom.

Yet, with the shortage of teachers in schools in Canada, the United States, Europe and Australia, some schools are hiring staff without formal education training.

Initiatives to increase the number of qualified teachers entering the profession, including fast-tracking teaching degrees, have been proposed. These initiatives are valuable to help recruit future teachers. Yet teachers are needed in classrooms now SA国际影视传媒� and attention has turned to retaining them.

Schools seeking to retain teachers SA国际影视传媒� and to sustain their often-passionate investment in their chosen profession SA国际影视传媒� might consider a proven professional development model my colleagues and I have researched known as SA国际影视传媒渃ollaborative action research.SA国际影视传媒�

This model allows teachers to take control of their own learning and the changes they want to make in their classrooms.

Retaining teachers: factors to consider

Much of the research on retaining teachers has identified why they leave the profession. A survey of teachers across Canada shows that stressful working conditions and feelings of powerlessness due to restricted autonomy in decision-making are more influential than salary dissatisfaction. Recommendations to address these sources of dissatisfaction include:

- developing a culture of collaboration that supports teachers in building positive collegial relationships.

- empowering teachers by ensuring they have input into professional learning initiatives and changes that impact their teaching.

Remote rural and Indigenous communities

My own research has attempted to find ways to support teachersSA国际影视传媒� professional learning in remote rural and Indigenous communities, where researchers have documented that the teacher shortage is especially acute.

With colleagues, I have been involved in the Northern Oral language and Writing through Play (NOW Play) project. This project, with teachers in public schools and in First Nation schools in the Northwest Territories and northern Alberta and Ontario, uses collaborative action research to support young childrenSA国际影视传媒檚 Indigenous language and cultural learning and their writing.

In conversation with colleagues and supported by a researcher, teachers create an open-ended research question, and then determine what kinds of data they will gather to answer their research question. Often the data will be student writing, artwork or digital creations, together with teacher observations of what students say and do as they carry out the learning activities.

Teachers reflect on data

For example, with the NOW Play project, one teacher from an Anishinaabe community formed this question: SA国际影视传媒淲hen the schoolSA国际影视传媒檚 Ojibwe language and culture teacher and I take my Grade 1 students fishing and we smoke the fish, and then I ask students to write and draw about what their experience, what does their writing show about their cultural knowledge of the community and about their writing development?SA国际影视传媒�

Teachers reflect on what the data show about how their teaching is meeting studentsSA国际影视传媒� needs and how their findings answer their research question.

After teachers gather information, they meet with me (usually about every six to eight weeks). We all look at each teacherSA国际影视传媒檚 data together and discuss what we observe about studentsSA国际影视传媒� learning and how our findings answer the teachersSA国际影视传媒� research questions.

Supports student learning

TeachersSA国际影视传媒� reflection on what they have learned through this close examination of the data, and the conversations with colleagues and myself, may lead to satisfaction that a teaching approach is supporting studentsSA国际影视传媒� learning in the desired way.

It may also bring to light student learning that goes beyond teachersSA国际影视传媒� expectations or does not match the expectations at all. Regardless of the type of findings, teachersSA国际影视传媒� reflections on the data are used to improve teaching so that student learning is enhanced. In this way, action research aligns with reflective teaching practice and is not an additional research workload for teachers.

I contribute my experience and skills in conducting research when needed, but the teachers take the lead in identifying what they need to achieve their goals. Over the years of working with teachers, I am taking more and more of a back seat as they develop the skills to carry out research without me.

As a NOW Play participant explained, collaborative action research provides SA国际影视传媒渁 structure that helps us move forward in the work we want to do.SA国际影视传媒�

Professional learning bringing excitement

In focus groups participating teachers have talked about the excitement generated through participation in collaborative action research. In an earlier collaborative action research project with northern teachers, one teacher said, SA国际影视传媒淚f I had known that teaching could be this fun, I would never have submitted my retirement papers SA国际影视传媒�.SA国际影视传媒�

Although this early action research project ended and the teacher did retire, teachers who are participating in the NOW Play project are committed to continuing with the project and remaining in their northern teaching positions. Indeed, enthusiasm has captured the interest of other teachers in the schools. We will welcome many new teachers to the project in the upcoming year.

TeachersSA国际影视传媒� excitement and desire to continue comes from the collegiality and the opportunity to take control of their professional learning. One teacher explained what she gained from participation:

SA国际影视传媒淚 appreciate the power of data. Having observations and always using that to guide your practice and being reflective on what you did. And thereSA国际影视传媒檚 the deeper understanding ISA国际影视传媒檓 getting from working with colleagues. It allows me to develop as a person as well.SA国际影视传媒�

One teacher said that she has changed as a teacher has become more observant of the learning her students demonstrate in their everyday activity. Another teacher explained, SA国际影视传媒淚 think that carrying out action research has led me to kind of just pause and take the time to notice what kids are doing at present.SA国际影视传媒�

These teachers and their colleagues participating in the project agree that this collaborative action research has contributed to their professional growth and increased student engagement and learning.

Not SA国际影视传媒榓nother thing on the plateSA国际影视传媒�

The value of supporting teacher involvement in collaborative research and reflection for generating renewed interest in teaching and becoming better teachers is expressed by a NOW Play participant:

SA国际影视传媒淚SA国际影视传媒檝e gone from thinking that action research is an add-on itSA国际影视传媒檚 another thing on the plate. I now realize that itSA国际影视传媒檚 one of the most important things we can do.SA国际影视传媒�

Schools that are seeking initiatives for generating teachersSA国际影视传媒� excitement about teaching and staying the profession might consider collaborative action research as a proven professional development model SA国际影视传媒� and one that does not require substantial financial resources, beyond providing time in the school day for teachers to get together with an experienced researcher who can support teacher-led collaborative research.

By Shelley Stagg Peterson, Professor of Elementary Literacy, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, University of Toronto. This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site.