Exploratory Action Research in the Camtree Library

Mar 26 / Camtree Team
An innovative approach to in-service teacher development, Exploratory Action Research was originally conceived for the British Council’s 'Champion Teachers' programme in Chile, in 2013. The approach was specifically designed to address the continuing professional development (CPD) needs of public school English teachers working in challenging situations, and has been taken up, and shown to be beneficial, elsewhere in the Global South.

Since 2013, Exploratory Action Research programmes have involved teachers from Peru, Mexico, Thailand, and from across Africa.  Reports of their research have been published as collected volumes on the British Council's website, but they are now also available as a searchable collection within the Camtree Digital Library
Camtree worked with Professor Richard Smith of Warwick University who first developed the Exploratory Action Research approach for the British Council, to write abstracts and structure the reports into eight collections with over ninety reports in total:
  • Champion Teachers - Stories of Exploratory Action Research in Chile
  • Champion Teachers Mexico - three collections from Mexico
  • Champion Teachers Peru
  • Exploratory Action Research in Thai Schools
  • English Connects Action Research (ECAR) - from six countries in Africa
  • Exploring Gender in the African Classroom - stories from ECAR programme, with a focus on gender 
The Exploratory Action Research approach encourages autonomy, reflection and empowerment and the reports in the collections are stories of English teachers exploring their own contexts and practices in order to better understand their work and promote their students’ learning.

Now, this unique collection is available as a browsable, searchable, open-access resource via the Camtree Digital Library.