A Case Study of Inquiry as Stance Among Teacher Candidates Conducting Practitioner Inquiry in a Professional Development School

Download or read book A Case Study of Inquiry as Stance Among Teacher Candidates Conducting Practitioner Inquiry in a Professional Development School written by Logan Rutten and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teacher educators broadly agree upon the need to prepare teachers who, as lifelong learners, are poised to meet the perpetually changing demands of teaching. One widely cited approach to addressing this need is to promote the development of an inquiry stance among teacher candidates by engaging them in the cyclical process of practitioner inquiry--the systematic, intentional study of their own professional practices. Although practitioner inquiry has become a common pedagogy within preservice teacher education programs, little is known about how the empirical dimensions of the construct, inquiry as stance, actually play out among teacher candidates as they inquire. In response, this case study was conducted in order to characterize inquiry stance among teacher candidates who were engaged in practitioner inquiry during clinical internships in the context of a professional development school (PDS). This study features a case analysis of inquiry as stance within a PDS in which practitioner inquiry served as a signature pedagogy. Six teacher candidates each participated in a series of five semi-structured interviews as the study's primary data source; documents and field notes from participant-observations served as secondary data sources. Interpreting these sources through a four-dimensional framework for inquiry as stance, the data were analyzed in a four-cycle, theory-led thematic analysis. This analysis led to the generation of themes and frameworks to describe the characteristics of each dimension of inquiry as stance as it played out in the study's context. The study's findings indicate the diversity, complexity, and richness within the inquiry stance construct. The findings suggest the need for teacher educators, particularly those working within PDS contexts, to engage in ongoing professional learning in which the purposes of practitioner inquiry and inquiry as stance are continually questioned and deliberated. In addition to suggesting avenues for future research about inquiry stance, the study provides a warrant for expanded research on the learning of teacher educators, supervisors, and professional developers as well as the contributions of PDSs to the characteristics of teacher candidates' inquiry stances. The study affirms the perennial relevance of promoting an inquiry stance as a worthy aim of teacher education.