Collaborative Literacy Research And Why It Matters

In this chapter we summarise the outcomes of the Australian Research Council project that is the subject of this book. We then discuss the importance of three key aspects of our study: collaborative research, linking teacher wellbeing and the sustainability of the profession to teachers' agency, and teachers' systematic research on their own practice. The authors revisit the main goals of the project in relation to new literacy demands, outlining why this kind of collaborative research into changing pedagogies and curriculum matters, especially in current social conditions, and how the inquiries of the teacher researchers summarised in this book illustrate the value of such collaboration. We have taken teachers' wellbeing to be an integral element of this research. We argue that it is an essential aspect of increasing teachers' agency and thus enhancing the sustainability of the profession. We also contend that a productive and challenging way of achieving this wellbeing is through increasing teachers' access to, and capacity to engage in, research inquiries.