> But the
> nature and directions of such change are not, I think, predictable, nor can
> they be guided and controlled except at the price of destroying the value
> of the entire process. And there's the rub ... at least for many educators.
I agree that the changes that individual teachers may be led to make may
well go in unpredictable and idiosyncratic directions - though such
diversity is not, in itself, necessarily a bad thing, as it can increase
the pool of possible solutions to problems that are almost certainly
experienced by many teachers.
However, with inquiry, I also proposed dialogue and community. As well
as providing responses that may extend and qualify the individual
teacher's interpretations of her or his observations and plans for
change, participation in a community with other educational practitioners
provides support and encouragement and, most important, a forum for
dialogue about values and theory as well as about practice and the local
conditions that facilitate, constrain or otherwise affect practices that
enact the values espoused. In fact, I suspect that, for many of us, the
community of xmca provides just these sorts of opportunities to grow and
change through inquiry and dialogue.
Gordon Wells, gwells who-is-at oise.utoronto.ca
OISE/University of Toronto
http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/~ctd/DICEP/
Visit NETWORKS, the new on-line journal for teacher research, at:
http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/~ctd/networks/