From Preservice to Inservice: The Development of Inquiry Stance

Practitioner inquiry holds promise of sharpening teachers' focus on individual learners. It may also promote ongoing reflection on practices and guide construction of local, context-specific forms of knowledge. More work is needed, however, to understand if inquiry, introduced during preservice, leads to an ongoing disposition. Therefore, I examined perspectives of graduates of the English language arts (ELA) strand of one inquiry-infused program at various touch points over time, as well as the forms of inquiry undertaken at those various touch points, in order to understand the degree to which and ways in which inquiry stance has evolved in program graduates' practices over time.;After reporting broadly on teachers' inquiry perspectives and experiences through analysis of questionnaire data, a focus group, and findings from an earlier program of research, I present four case studies of teachers' engagements with inquiry, along with their inquiry perspectives at several touch points over time. Each focal teacher's experiences and perspectives, findings across cases, and developing inquiry dispositions are detailed in order to facilitate understanding of tensions that arise as teachers enact various elements of inquiry in their practices and report on their various views and perspectives.;Inquiry, at least for participants in this study, promoted belief in the practice as a method for learning about one's students, evaluating one's teaching, and developing practices for teaching content. Although evidence pointed to strong perspectives of the strength of inquiry as method for situated teacher learning, teachers' engagements with inquiry occurred at varying degrees. Some practices were taken up while others were left behind as teachers conducted unscaffolded inquiries in practice.;Inquiry, as conceptualized in the ELA strand of the teacher education program studied here, shows promise as a method for guiding teachers to make informed decisions about how to best meet their linguistically and culturally diverse students' particular needs. By enacting a form of inquiry that is steeped in data and is responsive to content, teaching context, and a community of inquiry, teachers can hone in on their students' varied needs and explore a range of practice to meet those needs.