Inquiry as Stance

In this long-awaited sequel to Inside/Outside: Teacher Research and Knowledge, two leaders in the field of practitioner research offer a radically different view of the relationship of knowledge and practice and of the role of practitioners in educational change. In their new book, the authors put forward the notion of inquiry as stance as a challenge to the current arrangements and outcomes of schools and other educational contexts. They call for practitioner researchers in local settings across the United States and around the world to ally their work with others as part of larger social and intellectual movements for social change and social justice.

Part I is a set of five essays that conceptualize inquiry as a stance and as a transformative theory of action that repositions the collective intellectual capacity of practitioners. Part II is a set of eight chapters written by eight differently positioned practitioners who are or were engaged in practitioner research in K–12 schools or teacher education. Part III offers a unique format for exploring inquiry as stance in the next generation—a readers’ theatre script that juxtaposes and co-mingles 20 practitioners’ voices in a performance-oriented format. Together the three parts of the book point to rich possibilities for practitioner inquiry in the next generation.

Contributors: Rebecca Akin, Gerald Campano, Delvin Dinkins, Kelly A. Harper, Gillian Maimon, Gary McPhail, Swati Mehta, Rob Simon, and Diane Waff

Marilyn Cochran-Smith holds the John E. Cawthorne Chair in Teacher Education for Urban Schools and directs the Doctoral Program in Curriculum and Instruction at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education. Susan L. Lytle is Associate Professor of Education, Chair of the Language and Literacy in Education Division, and Director of the Program in Reading/Writing/Literacy at the Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania.

“This is a text we will read well into the next decade.”
—Gloria Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin–Madison

“A powerful and welcome sequel to their classic Inside/Outside.”
—Sonia Nieto, Professor Emerita, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

“Inquiry as Stance should be a blockbuster.”
—Carole Edelsky, Professor Emerita, Arizona State University

“This optimistic and generous book is sure to become a central reference for teacher-researchers in K–16 schools and their colleagues and supporters throughout the system.”
—Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, Director, National Programs and Site Development, National Writing Project, University of California, Berkeley

“This view of the intellectual and personal work of teaching is a major counter to the contemporary emphasis on testing and packaged curricula.”
—Cynthia Ballenger, reading specialist, Cambridge Public Schools

“Once again Cochran-Smith, Lytle, and their colleagues bring us an invaluable book on the enormous possibilities of practitioner research.”
—Luis C. Moll, College of Education, University of Arizona

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

PART I. Theorizing and Contextualizing Practitioner Research

Chapter 1. Practitioner Inquiry in Trying Times

Chapter 2. Practitioner Inquiry: Versions and Variance

Chapter 3. Troubling Images of Teaching in No Child Left Behind

Chapter 4. Constructive Disruption: Practitioner Research and University Culture

Chapter 5. Inquiry as Stance: Ways Forward

Part I: References

PART II. Practitioners on Teaching, Learning, and School Leadership

Chapter 6. The "Bad Boy" and the Writing Curriculum
   Gary McPhail

Chapter 7. Practitioner Inquiry as Mediated Emotion
   Gillian Maimon

Chapter 8. Can We Read a Happy Book Next?: Using Children's Literature to Move Beyond Our White Space
   Kelly A. Harper

Chapter 9. Teachers Talk About Race, Class, and Achievement
   Delvin Dinkins

Chapter 10. Constructing a Language of Learning to Teach
   Rob Simon

Chapter 11. Creating a Hybrid Space for Self, Teacher, and Researcher
   Swati Mehta

Chapter 12. An Insider Voice: Leading as a Teacher
   Diane Waff

Chapter 13. Teacher Research as a Collective Struggle for Humanization
   Gerald Campano

Part III. Practitioners' Voices

Chapter 14. Practitioners' Voices in Trying Times: A Readers' Theatre Script
   Rebecca Akin and Gerald Campano, Editors

Index

About the Authors 

Marilyn Cochran-Smith won the 2018 AERA Division K Legacy Award