Inquiry as Stance: Practitioner Research in the Next Generation

by Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Susan L. Lytle

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

Genres: Education, Grad School, Teaching

416 pages, Paperback

First published March 30, 2009

About the author

Marilyn Cochran-Smith is the John E. Cawthorne Professor of Teacher Education for Urban Schools at the Lynch School of Education, Boston College, where she served as Director of the PhD Program in Curriculum & Instruction from 1996-2017. Cochran-Smith is widely known for her work about teacher education research, practice and policy and for her sustained commitment to teacher education for social justice with inquiry as the centerpiece. She is a frequent presenter nationally and internationally.

Dr. Cochran-Smith and the BC research group, Project TEER (Teacher Education and Education Reform), will publish Reclaiming Accountability in Teacher Education (Teachers College Press) in April, 2018. Cochran-Smith has written nine other books, five of which have won national awards, and more than 200 articles, chapters, and editorials related to teacher education. She is a founding co-editor of the Teachers College Press book series on Practitioner Inquiry, which has published more than 50 books about practitioner inquiry or by teachers and other education practitioners.

Dr. Cochran-Smith is the Principal Investigator for a Spencer Foundation-funded study of teacher education at new graduate schools of education (nGSEs) in the U.S. She is co-founder of Project RITE (Rethinking Initial Teacher Education for Equity), a two-country research project at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She is also the Chair of the International Advisory Panel on Teacher Education for NOKUT, Norway’s government agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education.

Cochran-Smith is a past president of the American Educational Research Association, an inaugural AERA fellow, and a member of the National Academy of Education. She has received many awards, including AERA’s Research to Practice Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Literacy Research Association, the Carl Grant Research Award from the National Association of Multicultural Education, and all of the major awards from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), including the David G. Imig Award for Achievement in Teacher Education, the Margaret B. Lindsey Award for Research in Teacher Education, and the Edward C. Pomeroy Award for Outstanding Contributions to Teacher Education.

Reviews

[Maria]

Summary: This chapter frames the book and articulates how the are not just including teachers as researchers but all kinds of teaching and adminstrative positions as practitioners. While this was written in 2009 and explicitly talks to the No Child Left Behind Act, it serves as a grounding article about how to stay focused as a teacher-researcher in suboptimal environments. By developing themes like agency, engagement and equity as well as conceptual frameworks, other themes build on these core ideas: community inquiry; policy reform; and research practices at universities.

Evaluation: This text helps me to not give up hope. It offers a holistic approach to tackling systemic issues but positioning the teacher-practitioner as a person empowered, not as someone who is doing a job uncritically. The frameworks and underlying philosophies are helpful reminders that I am part of a group of teachers that have fought similar and harder fights before me and that systems must be engaged as well as my responsibility to engage my students.

Reflection: I went back to this book to refresh myself on participatory action research. While I did read some other chapters, the first chapter is still a strong influence on my teaching pedagogy and helps me frame my unique teaching context in a healthful, liberating manner.

[Peaches · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved a lot about this book, which a highly-respected mentor recommended for me while preparing for my dissertation. I appreciated how it extended from k-12 to higher ed., explained poststructural concepts of inquiry in practitioner research, and was very readable. The only part I didn't like was that I didn't find any of the second section, the selected articles, useful.

[Margaret Boling · Rating 4 out of 5]

12/30/12 ** Well, I'll now admit it. I only read the first part. Have finally taken this off my "currently reading" shelf, since I'm clearly not going to finish the book in the near future. My comment of 7/7 holds...186 pages read, can't I count it?

7/7/12 ** Okay, this book has three parts. Part I is by the editors and provides the theory underlying and context surrounding practitioner (teacher) research. Does it count if I say I've "read" the book when I finish Part I? After all, that's 186 pages of academic writing!

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Makes a good case for educator as community activist...teaching is a political act - even though some of us may choose to ignore that fact.

[Dr.Given · Rating 4 out of 5]

Makes a good case for educator as community activist...teaching is a political act - even though some of us may choose to ignore that fact.

[Marie Orillion · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good book for those who have a critical perspective. I am more pragmatic, so it was less useful for me.