ABSTRACT
We do not plan our teaching and researching in a vacuum. The community and classroom con-
text, and the children and adolescents in these classrooms, inform our research questions and
teaching units. The combined main road and sides roads of Chapter 2 support you in balancing
your personal interest as it evolves into an area of focus and a critical question while consider-
ing the context of your teaching and researching. Read with both your personal and professional
voices talking back and with the text. Anticipate the chapter: be willing to mine possibilities, take
some risks, imagine what might be rather than focusing on what you think you already know or
on what may seem too difficult.
