Meera Chudasama
Tell us a little about your current job. What do you enjoy most? I am currently an English, Media and Film Studies Teacher at an all through school (3-19 years) in Milton Keynes. Alongside this, I am the Research and Development Co-ordinator for Innovate Teaching School Partnership. Within this role, I am the Editor for a teaching journal, ‘Innovate’. I thoroughly enjoy both roles as I am able to be at the heart of both teaching and learning.
I see you have come some way from doing the MTeach. What would you say are the key things about the MTeach that have stayed with you? The key thing that has stayed with me through the course is the face-to-face sessions. These session have helped me to develop a rapport with tutors and forge relationships with my peers that have helped me to develop my writing and research. The discussions I have had in my face-to-face sessions have instigated a critical inquiry and reflection of my own classroom practice.
What did your dissertation/ practice based enquiry (RPBE or PBE) explore? What did you find out and how did it influence you? In my PBE I explored what does collaborative talk give students when studying a text. From my study I feel I have become more aware of the type of questions I ask students. Further to this, I have started to utilise all types of talk in my classroom practice and seeing this as a way that students engage with the texts we choose to study.
How was the MTeach work different from School or other professional development courses (e.g. INSET)? Since starting to teach, the MTeach has worked alongside my teaching practice. Unlike other professional development courses, the MTeach uses classroom practice as the basis of your study. It contributes and enhances your teaching practice through discussions, key readings, and one-to-one support through writing up your findings. Each step of the MTeach is well supported and bespoke to an individual’s teaching practice.
The MTeach is for teachers only, it often uses the sharing of participants classroom experiences/practice as a starting point, how did this work for you? At first I was dumbfounded to think what I did in the classroom was worthy to be “studied”? Later on, I found using my classroom easy and enlightening. Using my classroom practice as a focus meant I could be truly reflective on the teaching and learning that was happening in my classroom.
What is your next career move? I have been in my current role for 2 years. I would really like to spend a few years really developing the teaching magazine - keep widening the research-informed network in Milton Keynes and beyond!