Mission Statement

The Northwest Teacher Research Collaborative (NWTRC) is comprised of teacher education faculty from six different universities (George Fox, Lewis & Clark, Linfield, Portland State, Western Oregon, and Willamette) who are committed to supporting teacher research among all educators.  We believe that sustained engagement between university and K-12 educators and a research-oriented stance toward teaching can strengthen the practice and knowledge of teaching and learning, as well as help educators become effective advocates for their classrooms, schools, and districts.

The NWTRC maintains a diverse range of interests and philosophical perspectives, but we are brought together by the following three goals:

1.to build a community of Northwest K-12 and teacher educators who are empowered through teacher research—who conduct their own teacher research and/or support the teacher research of others;

2.to support teacher research among preservice and inservice teachers and teacher educators as a way to develop critical thought, healthy skepticism, deep reflection, and confidence in teacher inquiry and knowledge as a way to inform daily classroom decisions; and

3.to find and develop ways to encourage a strong voice among educators who rely on teacher research to bring the teacher perspective into public discourse about education.

VISION:  We intend to create a structure that supports all educators who are interested in pursuing teacher research.  This structure will be ongoing and respond to the needs of individual participants.  We will utilize the diverse range of skills and interests of the NWTRC.  The following outlines the structure we envision:

October conferences: This conference will offer educators opportunities to learn ways they can develop and use their professional voices, i.e. teacher research, political activism, collaborating with mentors, publishing, etc.  We will identify teachers from this conference who want to participate as individuals or groups in ongoing teacher research with the mentoring help of NWTRC members.

Workshops: All NWTRC mentors and mentees will formally meet in January, March, and May for ongoing dialogue.  These workshops will address the specific needs of the teacher researchers by providing professional development on topics of interest, i.e. collecting data, analyzing data, teacher research-teaching practice connection, etc.

NW Teacher Research Summer Institute:  This will be a one-to-two-day event where teacher research participants share their projects as well as receive consultation about how to write and publish their classroom research as well as formulate new questions and a new research design for the next year.

Collaborative Publication:  The ongoing support and mentoring of the individual projects will be collected over two-three years and then combined and edited by NWTRC into book form.