A volume in Adult Education Special Topics: Theory, Research,
and Practice in Lifelong Learning
Series Editor: Kathleen P. King, Fordham University
The power of teacher inquiry is revealed when educators examine
their practices and the factors that influence them with the purpose of
making necessary changes to improve the learning opportunities of their
students, and working conditions in schools. As such, in this book the
author proposes that reflection and inquiry done by teachers in multilingual
classrooms and schools may assist them to construct effective learning
communities. In this book, Dr. Nevárez-La Torre examines different
ways to reflect and conduct teacher inquiry in instructional settings where
students speak more than one language.
Her exploration focuses on a teacher-oriented question: What happens when practitioners who
work in multilingual schools inquire about their own practice, their students' learning, and their school's
ability to create a community of learners and thinkers? The main purpose of the book is to delineate a
model for conducting classroom inquiry that teachers may follow to pursue important questions about
their practice and multilingual students' learning process.
Some special features of the volume include: a case study of a
multilingual teacher inquiry group; description of the steps to follow
in designing and implementing inquiry projects; and a bibliography of
key resources (i.e., books, websites, and journals) for conducting
teacher inquiry as a professional development tool and for learning
about linguistically diverse classrooms and schools.
There are eight chapters in this book divided into three sections.
Although the sections are thematically connected, the reader
may use them independently of each other. The first section introduces
the idea for the book, the author as a practitioner-researcher, and the
main practical and conceptual issues discussed in the book. In addition,
there is a chapter that introduces a model for using teacher
inquiry as a tool for professional development. The second section
includes the analyses of the trajectory followed by three teachers into
using teacher inquiry to grow as professionals in ESL and bilingual
classrooms. The third section of the book situates professional development using teacher inquiry within a
broader theoretical framework supported by other research done by academicians in various educational
fields. It also examines some key implications of this work for the education of in-service and pre-service
teachers.