ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the role of inquiry in teacher leadership. When teachers and other practitioners are researchers, they conduct their own systematic and intentional inquiries into practice informed by, but also critiquing, the knowledge and theories of others. Practitioner researchers investigate highly significant questions about the kinds of practices and approaches that provide all learners access to quality educational opportunities and have direct experience with the ways research-based policies play out in the day-to-day life of classrooms. The chapter explores the multiple and complex relationships of inquiry and leadership by presenting mini-cases of practice that illustrate the various facets and perspectives of these relationships. Kirstin's McEachern inquiry illustrates how teachers lead by engaging in inquiry intended to generate local knowledge that provides new perspectives on larger, more public issues. Gary McPhail is involved in linking the inquiry work at Meadowbrook to the efforts of a national center on gender and schooling.
