Week2: Teacher Educator Inquiry

Dear “Teacher Educator Inquiry”, I love you! I’ve been waiting for you for such a long time!

This is how I feel after this week’s readings. I know that this might sound silly, but that’s the truth. I have been a student without a practical experience for 5 years! I came to the US in 2009 as an English learner, then studied the Master’s, and after that I have entered the doctoral program in 2011. It was truly challenging to comprehend what this study type means every time it was introduced to me. As both readings explain, it’s about studying one’s own practice systematically and intentionally. Thus, a critical component for inquiry is the thing being studied, which is practice. As I said at the beginning, I had no earlier chances to teach or supervise and this was for many reasons such as my language. Today, I am finally there, practicing and learning from my practice. Only now I can say hello practice and hello inquiry!

Now, let’s move to the readings. I found both resources valuable, insightful, and inspiring. Both discuss the same concept of inquiry, however, each has a different and unique view. Dana and Yendol-Hoppey (2014) co-authored a clear, easy to read and practical book. As a reader, I felt like a passenger on a train called inquiry and the chapters were learning stations I stopped at with my train. One of the big themes in this book is emphasis on teachers’ voice. With teacher inquiry, teachers take the lead of their own learning, they are in the front seat, and they are the true change agents. From the perspective of a teacher educator, I consider this research type as an eye to witness realities of teaching and learning that take place everyday in the different classrooms. Also, it is a way of telling teachers that learning to teach can never stop and that their wonderings are always valuable.

Another wonderful goal they mentioned in the book is the idea of reinventing schools as learning organizations. According to Dana and Yendol-Hoppey (2014), “As teachers engage in the process of inquiry, their thinking and reflection are made public for discussing, sharing, debate, and purposeful educative conversation, and teaching becomes less isolated and overwhelming” (p. 23). This sounds very nice but at the same time it’s hard. It demands a safe and trusting environment in which teachers are in a zone of comfort while talking about their own teaching to others. This I believe needs time and relationship building, and the question that came to my mind, to what extent do our school systems back home in Kuwait support building communities of learners? Then I wondered, how could we promote such practice within our learning institutions?

Let me move now to Dinkleman (2003) and his notions about self-study. As I stated earlier, both readings are similar in terms of how they define this research type. However, there are some variations that are attributed to the nature of the context in which they are situated. When it comes to teaching teachers, the story becomes a bit different. According to Dinkleman (2003), self-study is a tool that promotes reflective teaching, which is an approach for teacher educators. To me, this means that reflection, intentional reflection, is a goal for self-study. On the other hand, according to Dana and Yendol-Hoppey (2014), reflection and action are components of this study type, which ultimately aims to “change”. As one can see, reflection is emphasized in both processes and the only difference is where it stands in each process, a mean or end. Further, I found what Dinkleman (2003) discusses in his article very relevant. Especially, the idea of modeling reflection to promote reflection. One of my big research interests is promoting reflective practice. This made me wonder if I am truly reflective and to what extent I am making this visible to others, particularly my students.

In terms of practice, I loved the idea of celebrating problems which Dana and Yendol-Hoppey (2014) mentioned in chapter two. I had a conversation with my interns yesterday where most of what we were talking about is problems and challenges found in the field. Tomorrow, we will have a meeting at Panera Bread and I am planning to invite them for a “problem celebration”. Why? Because I want them to start their journey with a “welcoming attitude for change”, an attitude that helps them view every problem they face as an opportunity to learn. Also, as part of the Early Childhood Education program at USF, student teachers in their final internship are required to conduct a “Teacher Inquiry” and this serves as their final project. Isn’t it amazing that both my interns and I are going to be engaged simultaneously in the process of finding answers to wonderings we have about our own practice? In his article, Dinkleman (2003) states, “in my work with beginning teachers, I make no secret of the way in which I am looking critically at my teaching” (p. 11). This made me think of sharing my work with my interns and see what impact this might have on them. Also, as I am expecting that my interns are still in the initial stages of inquiry, finding the right questions, one way that might guide their thinking is working on the exercises mentioned in chapter two.

Speaking of inquiry, what am I going to study? I still have no idea! And this is expected from a novice inquirer according to Dana and Yendol-Hoppey (2014) so I am not worried about it yet as long as I have the excitement and enthusiasm for the experience of learning from my practice and about my practice. In my culture, we say let things take its time to be fully cooked so that they become tastier and for this reason I won’t rush my handmade dish and let the true wondering be ready to be served, studied. All my brainstormed questions are around communication and I know why. My current practice is still in the level of communication and relationship building with the interns. I am quite sure that my wonderings would take another path by next week when I’ll actually be in the classroom observing and evaluating the interns’ teaching. I’ll be doing this for the first time ever! And this by itself is so motivational. Now, at the moment of writing this reflection, I remembered my own internship experience and my supervisors at that time. The wondering that just invaded my mind and caught my attention is, in what ways would my supervision role be different than the role of my former Kuwaiti supervisors? Or to what extent does my previous experience as supervisee impacts my current work as a supervisor?

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