ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors argue that communities within which research is conducted are transactional sites where the academic and local communities mutually shape new texts. They suggest that by embracing research in communities as transactional space, researchers open themselves and those communities to learning that is multidimensional, polyphonic, and mutually transformative. Through use of narrative, the authors document their research work in communities and schools and wonder what their transactions in these contact zones have meant in terms of their identities as researchers, teachers, and teacher educators. Furthermore, they argue that the issue is more than just learning from communities; there is something about the quality of knowledge obtained that comes from a transactional relationship. L. M. Rosenblatt argued that meaning is neither in the text nor the reader, but occurs in the creation of new texts as reader and text transact.
