This thesis reports on the key elements of an action research study in which I looked at my practice over a three year period of teaching ethics in management in a London university using an action research epistemology. I was concerned about how to effectively teach and facilitate the learning of ethics on undergraduate management programmes, and my main focus was to consider my integrity in practice and thus my praxis as lecturer and researcher. I have described and explained two action research cycles, in which I established and developed an innovative approach to my practice. I have mapped and evaluated the changes that I put into place to improve my practice. The thesis shows how I developed reciprocal learning environments in class whereby students could engage critically, both cognitively and emotionally, with ethical dilemmas. I show how students undertook mini action research projects which helped them to develop a voice through questioning their own and others’ values. For many students, learning ethics through action research is a profound, transformative and reciprocal process that has its own integrity. I also show how I developed an understanding of the theory of praxis through using integrity in practice within my educational setting as a foundation, principle and guide. The journey has been a profound and challenging task of self-reflection on my work as a university lecturer. It has changed the way that I see myself as a teacher and it has offered me a deeper commitment towards my practice.

abstract: This research is a reversal of the traditional concept of the student-teaching research experiment. Instead of studying the clear and stated goal of an apprenticeship, that of a pupil learning from the tutelage of a master, the focus here is on what a mentor-teacher learns from a student-teacher. During the act of teaching a novice, what can a mentor-teacher learn about her own practice, while demonstrating it to a pre-service teacher? Using the conceptual framework of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards' Architecture of Accomplished Teaching, and using it within a framework centered around cognitive coaching and reciprocal mentoring, this action research study implemented an intervention that called for series of five cognitive coaching cycles between a mentor- and student-teacher designed to foster dialogue and reflection between them. The ultimate aim of this case study was to help determine what a mentor-teacher learned about her own practice as a result of mentoring a student-teacher. Qualitative data were collected over sixteen weeks in a charter high school. Five findings were identified created after the data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach, and four conclusions were drawn about the intervention's role in the mentor-teacher's reciprocal learning. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2011