ABSTRACT
Teachers researching their own teaching and children's learning has become an important area of practitioner research in education over the last 20 years. This chapter defines inquiry, and examines what inquiry and research conducted by teachers in their particular settings (i.e., their schools, their classrooms, and their communities) can look like. It looks at the process of reflection, the stance of inquiry and the creation of documentation, all essential to understanding what is happening in the schools and classrooms with children and teachers. Teacher research contributes to a greater understanding of what can constitute good teaching and powerful learning in our diverse early childhood centers and schools. Teacher research represents teachers' work from the teachers' perspective. The different forms of teacher research draw on research methods from anthropology, ethnography, sociology, and other qualitative research methods that can involve outsiders and insiders.
