Reimagining research and mentorship for well-grounded teacher development

In the confusingly and sometimes dangerously changing world we inhabit, enabling students to navigate complexity in a well-grounded, secure and self-aware way is one of the greatest gifts an educator can offer, in a way that AI cannot replace. Indeed, the more people turn to AI and other quick-fix solutions, the more important it may be for educators to nurture critical agency and creative control in their students.

How, though, can teachers develop such capacities when they themselves often feel lost and bewildered in a sea of competing demands, facing difficult circumstances they cannot control? How can we reimagine teacher education and teacher development so that these provide a more solid, realistic and reliable foundation for confronting these demands and difficulties?

In this paper, I argue for an overall reimagined approach to research and mentoring for teachers, involving an increase in support and scaffolding for teacher-research rather than further disempowerment via over-theoretical, over-demanding, top–down models. In specific, concrete illustration of this overall approach, I showcase positive examples and outcomes of Exploratory Action Research mentoring for teacher educators, for teachers and for student-teachers, using examples from recent initiatives in Uzbekistan as well as more globally.

While Exploratory Action Research (mentoring) is not presented as a magic solution, and is not without its own challenges, it clearly can help to provide teachers with the kind of solid foundation for addressing pressing practical issues – and for nurturing like-mindedly active and self-aware learners – that is fundamental to a sustainable future.