Initiating and Sustaining a Culture of Inquiry in a Teacher Leadership Program (original) (raw)

How can teacher educators initiate and sustain a culture of inquiry among participants in a graduate program? This was the core issue in the design of a new Masters degree program that emphasized teacher leadership. As the faculty discussed desirable features of the program, agreement emerged that the core courses should build teachers' capacities to inquire into their own teaching practices and student learning. Because inquiry was seen as a central component of teacher education, professional development, and school improvement (Valli, 2000; van Zee, 1998), program faculty placed high priority on modeling a culture of inquiry in program design and publicly engaging in classroom inquiry and action research ourselves (Valli & Price, 2000; van Zee, 2000). Thinking about what data to gather and how to interpret these data are critical elements in developing expertise in inquiring into one's own teaching practices (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993; Hubbard & Power, 1993, 1999; Mills...