Promising Pedagogies for Teacher Inquiry and Practice

Drawing on frameworks of teacher research and critical literacy, this volume documents the experiences of educators in New Mexico who participate in Teaching Out Loud—an intergenerational, professional development program that focuses on the creation and implementation of imaginative, critical curriculum with historically marginalized students. This text offers a set of conceptual tools and pedagogical practices for teacher educators and researchers seeking to advance teacher learning and leadership through the use of critical study groups, rather than the more scripted professional development approaches that dominate mainstream educational settings. Specifically, this book uses the voices of a diverse set of teachers to demonstrate the role of teacher inquiry in shifting curriculum and advancing equity, even when faced with formidable circumstances like a global pandemic. The authors examine how participation in Teaching Out Loud helped teachers foster social-emotional learning, foreground issues of race and identity, build and sustain community, promote self-care, and center play within and against challenging local and global contexts.

Book Features:

• Highlights the voices of teachers representing a range of diverse perspectives and experience levels.
• Explains classroom practices and approaches in detail.
• Examines the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Explicitly addresses critical issues like race and social justice.
• Focuses on the American Southwest.

Katherine Crawford-Garrett is an assistant professor of teacher education at the University of New Mexico. Damon R. Carbajal is a gay, queer Chicanx educator, scholar, and activist from Las Cruces, New Mexico.

“The teacher-researcher-writer-activists represented in this bookembody the latest generation of the Teacher Research Movement, and they have much to share with the field about nurturing and sustaining collective educational projects.”
—From the Foreword by Gerald Campano, professor, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education

“This book honestly portrays the desperation and joy experienced by a group of teachers who supported each other before and during the global pandemic. Their stories hold compassion and heartbreak as teachers recount what they learned and how they plan to move forward to meet the current moment.”
—Kathy Schultz, dean, school of education, University of Colorado Boulder

“Promising Pedagogies for Teacher Inquiry and Practice: Teaching Out Loud captures the challenges inherent in creating more equitable schools and classrooms while simultaneously encouraging the reader with stories of teachers who have embraced this challenge through participation in an intergenerational inquiry community. It's a must-read for anyone who doubts inquiry can continue to be a powerful form of teacher professional learning and activism in these contentious times for education. I will use this text in all my classes to inspire current and future educators to action through inquiry.”
—Nancy Fichtman Dana, professor and Distinguished Teaching Scholar, University of Florida

Contents (Tentative)

Foreword
Gerald Campano

Acknowledgments

PART I: Teacher Inquiry in Contentious Times

Introduction
Katherine Crawford-Garrett

1. Setting the Stage—The Foundations of Teaching Out Loud
Katherine Crawford-Garrett

2. Professional Development in Contentious Times: The Origins and Practices of Teaching Out Loud
Damon R. Carbajal, Katherine Crawford-Garrett, and Kahlil Simpson

3. Educational Challenges and Opportunities in New Mexico
Katherine Crawford-Garrett, Damon R. Carbajal, Amanda Y. Short, and Kahlil Simpson

PART II: Translating Critical, Creative Work to Virtual Spaces: Stories From the Classroom

4. Promoting and Documenting the Importance of Play in a Kindergarten Classroom
Linnea Holden

5. Creating Conditions for Kindness in a Second-Grade Classroom
Kristen Heighberger-Ortiz

6. Confronting Race, Identity, and Social Emotional Learning in a Fourth-Grade Classroom
Amanda Y. Short

7. Imagining Joy: Toward Abolition in the Middle School Classroom
Kahlil Simpson

8. A Radical Space for Growth, Equity, and the Re-humanization of Educators
Damon R. Carbajal

PART III: Conceptualizing Key Tenets of Critical Teacher Inquiry

9. Moving Forward: Conceptual Tools and Promising Pedagogies for Teacher Inquiry and Practice
Katherine Crawford-Garrett and Kahlil Simpson

Endnotes

Index

About the Editors

About the Contributors