ABSTRACT
Principles emerge from practice; we practice our principles, and in practicing and confronting our limitations often we discover just what those principles are. And so the initial question posed by the editors of this volume, ‘Why teach teachers as you do?’ necessitates a two-phased response, beginning with practice and ending with principles, guiding assumptions or fundamental beliefs, which, hopefully, wraparound and inform and sustain my practice. The first phase inevitably takes a biographical turn because practicing teacher education, like other teaching relationships, involves testifying-to teach is to testify; to bear witness of a way of being in and understanding the world; a life is an argument-and because, like teachers, teacher ‘educators’ work…appears to be significantly shaped by prior experiences’ (Hatton, 1994). I begin, then, with a story that represents my initial grounding, the argument I brought with me to teacher education. Then I address their second question, ‘What principles underpin your practice?’ and their third, ‘How do I know what I do makes a difference?’
