Did the Preservice Teacher–Generated Studies Constitute Actual Instances of Teacher-Researcher Studies, and Were They Consistent With Notions of Dewey?

It is suggested that articles in an American Annals of the Deaf special issue on teacher action research constitute a 2-tiered metastudy: The first article serves as a literature review of the teacher-as-researcher notion; 5 subsequent articles form the data set for a higher-order teacher-as-researcher inquiry. It is maintained that the preservice teachers' work met the definition of teacher-as-researcher in that they systematically investigated their own teaching/learning practices through a reflective lens, with the twin purposes of modifying their own practices and contributing to the theoretical in situ knowledge base of learning and teaching in general. It is also argued that this body of work is consistent with the stance on inquiry advocated by Columbia University's Teachers College and its Program in the Education of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and that teacher research reflected Dewey's notions of pragmatism, functionalism, constructivism, communication, and social advocacy.