ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a paper written by Michael Escamilla, a full time preschool teacher who is also a gifted narrative inquirer. He offers a more complete account of his inquiry into how his young students engaged in and integrated learning experiences in the classroom with those outside the classroom walls, at a local museum, and at the nearby bay. The chapter offers Michael's account of his inquiry not as a script for engaging in narrative inquiry, as the specifics of one's teaching environment and lived experiences so deeply influence the form and outcomes of this methodology. It considers how deliberately collected stories of teaching can be organized and analyzed to provide insight into the teaching and learning process. Narrative inquiry is considered as an approach to understanding teaching and learning and as a means to keep the focus of teaching on the puzzles and problems that are most important to the particular teacher and children in a classroom.
