ABSTRACT
So far we have looked at how student teachers can learn to take an inquiry stance toward their practice in a variety of constructed contexts and with specific content (e.g., integrating theory and understanding theory and addressing difficult moral and ethical issues through different instructional activities). We have looked at self-study and at investigating questions that consider issues of equity and social justice at the heart of one’s practice. For the most part, the questions that we have investigated have been designed or provoked by me, as their teacher. However, for inquiry to be a tool for young teachers to use to improve and understand their practice, they need to learn to develop questions for investigation. In some ways, finding the question is perhaps the most difficult aspect of using inquiry as a way to improve one’s practice. The development of questions that help a teacher move forward in her practice and support the learning of her students is critical. Inquiry is a powerful stance that can help teachers problematize the situations they encounter so that they can systematically examine the issues involved and subsequently find solutions that may carry over into more than one situation. Inquiry needs to become a professional “habit of mind.” An important aspect of learning to inquire is to learn to identify questions for reflection and inquiry. In the context of a student teaching placement, fledgling teachers can begin to
put together the theory and practice they have been learning in their teacher education classes. Inquiring into their personal teaching practices allows them to investigate what they are doing while they are doing it, and to explore the meaning and implications of the theoretical and practical constructs developed in their college instruction. As their instructor, it took me several iterations of the same seminar before I was able to construct a seminar experience that capitalized on these aspects of learning to teach, to help them develop ways of dealing with ongoing challenges that were not based on a recipe or a “how to” set of rules. In two earlier studies I investigated how preservice teachers come to understand
constructivist theory (Kroll, 2004) and how learning to teach can be enhanced by the use of inquiry particularly when the learning to teach context is a challenging one (Kroll, 2003). This study was, in turn, based on several earlier studies conducted with my colleagues at Mills College in which we investigated what makes
Kroll, & Kroll, 2000). These studies showed that student teaching placements can be experienced successfully when certain factors are in place, including consonance between the cooperating teacher’s philosophy and that of the program, and a supportive relationship between the student teaching supervisor and the preservice teacher. In studying the use of inquiry to address problems in practice (Kroll, 2003), I found that even in the most difficult contexts, when student teachers constructed inquiry questions and investigated them, they were able to overcome some of the overwhelming challenges and make significant progress in becoming good teachers. Importantly, the nature of the questions the preservice teachers chose to investigate made a difference in how well they were able to take an inquiry stance with regard to their own practice and to use that stance to change and improve practice. In this chapter I focus on the process of choosing the question for inquiry: How did preservice teachers come to identify interesting, fruitful investigations, and what role did they play with one another in identifying and understanding these questions? I also consider the place of this process in initiating a long-term commitment to professional self-study and teacher research.
