ABSTRACT

Inquiring into best teaching practices is a reiterative process. In the spirit of participatory research, we shared a draft of the book with the teachers and invited them to a celebration-meeting to talk about their teaching practices, learn from other teachers, and provide us with feedback. We were heartened to learn that our writing and representation of their teaching practices resonated with them. During the whole-group discussion, Sister Martha stated, “You used the idea of constantly shifting continua and I thought, ‘You got it!!’ It said so much to me about the reality of adult education. I mean, if you think you got it, uh-uh, the next day it will shift again.” Angy, one of the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teachers, responded, “I like the part about the dance that we do of constantly reading our students and going back to the drawing board and recreating to have our practices better fit our students. We are always doing that.”