This paper presents a summary of four research projects implemented by teachers who are graduate students and underlines paradoxes faced by each on how to grapple with the difficulty of reconciling the top-down change approach that their university program trains them in with the bottom-up approach called action research. The tensions created by the paradoxes experienced generate important questions dealing with the teaching of action/collaborative research in a university context. Questions advanced in the paper include: (1) What is the teacher researcher goal: to change himself/herself or to change the environment? (2) How are change agents trained through research? (3) How does one account for collaborative work done in the school setting when it is time to grant a degree; (4) Who plans the research and designs it with the student-teacher-researcher when it is collaborative: the university research committee or the action research team? (5) Is there a more appropriate research methodology when working with teachers as graduate students; (6) What type of research is more appropriate for teachers who want to become change agents, and can research be a change strategy? (7) Do teachers have to go to university to learn action research or can it be done in school settings? (Author/JB)