Inquiry as Stance: Practitioner Research for the Next Generation

by Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Susan L. Lytle

Overview

In this long-awaited sequel to Inside/Outside: Teacher Research and Knowledge, two leaders in the field of practitioner research offer a radically different view of the relationship of knowledge and practice and of the role of practitioners in educational change. In their new book, the authors put forward the notion of inquiry as stance as a challenge to the current arrangements and outcomes of schools and other educational contexts. They call for practitioner researchers in local settings across the United States and around the world to ally their work with others as part of larger social and intellectual movements for social change and social justice.

Part I is a set of five essays that conceptualize inquiry as a stance and as a transformative theory of action that repositions the collective intellectual capacity of practitioners. Part II is a set of eight chapters written by eight differently positioned practitioners who are or were engaged in practitioner research in K–12 schools or teacher education. Part III offers a unique format for exploring inquiry as stance in the next generation—a readers’ theatre script that juxtaposes and co-mingles 20 practitioners’ voices in a performance-oriented format. Together the three parts of the book point to rich possibilities for practitioner inquiry in the next generation.

Contributors: Rebecca Akin, Gerald Campano, Delvin Dinkins, Kelly A. Harper, Gillian Maimon, Gary McPhail, Swati Mehta, Rob Simon, and Diane Waff

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807749708
Publisher:	Teachers College Press
Publication date:	04/27/2009
Series:	Practitioner Inquiry Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Marilyn Cochran-Smith holds the John E. Cawthorne Chair in Teacher Education for Urban Schools and directs the Doctoral Program in Curriculum and Instruction at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education. Susan L. Lytle is Associate Professor of Education, Chair of the Language and Literacy in Education Division, and Director of the Program in Reading/Writing/Literacy at the Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Acknowledgments xiii

Part I Theorizing and Contextualizing Practitioner Research 1

Chapter 1 Practitioner Inquiry in Trying Times 5

Chapter 2 Practitioner Inquiry: Versions and Variance 37

Chapter 3 Troubling Images of Teaching in No Child Left Behind 60

Chapter 4 Constructive Disruption: Practitioner Research and University Culture 86

Chapter 5 Inquiry as Stance: Ways Forward 118

Part I References 167

Part II Practitioners on Teaching, Learning, and School Leadership 187

Chapter 6 The "Bad Boy" and the Writing Curriculum Gary McPhail 193

Chapter 7 Practitioner Inquiry as Mediated Emotion Gillian Maimon 213

Chapter 8 Can We Read a Happy Book Next?: Using Children's Literature to Move Beyond Our White Space Kelly A. Harper 229

Chapter 9 Teachers Talk About Race, Class, and Achievement Delvin Dinkins 254

Chapter 10 Constructing a Language of Learning to Teach Rob Simon 275

Chapter 11 Creating a Hybrid Space for Self, Teacher, and Researcher Swati Mehta 293

Chapter 12 An Insider Voice: Leading as a Teacher Diane Waff 310

Chapter 13 Teacher Research as a Collective Struggle for Humanization Gerald Campano 326

Part III Practitioners' Voices 343

Chapter 14 Practitioners' Voices in Trying Times: A Readers' Theatre Script Rebecca Akin Gerald Campano 347

Index 383

About the Authors 401

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This is a text we will read well into the next decade.”
—Gloria Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin–Madison

“A powerful and welcome sequel to their classic Inside/Outside.”
—Sonia Nieto, Professor Emerita, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

“Inquiry as Stance should be a blockbuster.”
—Carole Edelsky, Professor Emerita, Arizona State University

“This optimistic and generous book is sure to become a central reference for teacher-researchers in K–16 schools and their colleagues and supporters throughout the system.”
—Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, Director, National Programs and Site Development, National Writing Project, University of California, Berkeley

“This view of the intellectual and personal work of teaching is a major counter to the contemporary emphasis on testing and packaged curricula.”
—Cynthia Ballenger, reading specialist, Cambridge Public Schools

“Once again Cochran-Smith, Lytle, and their colleagues bring us an invaluable book on the enormous possibilities of practitioner research.”
—Luis C. Moll, College of Education, University of Arizona