K-12 Teacher Inquiry and Reflections: A Pathway to Enduring Transformation

(Hardback)

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K-12 Teacher Inquiry and Reflections: A Pathway to Enduring Transformation features the key components of a five-semester graduate program with a focus on Reflective Practice (MARP) for K-12 classroom teachers. In this program, students focus on the study of their own teaching, action research implementation and analysis, reflective practice experiences, and transformations teachers experienced because of their participation in this program. The book is divided into three sections and an introduction. The Introduction explains the historical foundations of MARP, with an in-depth exploration of the key elements of MARP featuring the voices of its founders. Section One features detailed explanations of action research PK teachers conducted, followed by a long-term reflection of their MARP experiences and its effects on them as teachers. Section Two includes chapters written by teachers explaining how they thoughtfully transformed their teaching practices and their overall teaching philosophies. In Section Three, faculty who teach in this five-semester graduate program describe their own collaborative teaching, experiences for students, key assignments, course objectives, classroom activities, readings, and discussions that are the foundation of the MARP experience for students.

Reviews

This uniquely fascinating text captures the inquiries, explorations, and discoveries documenting the lived experiences of an array of practicing classroom teachers enrolled in a graduate program focused on reflectivity. Authored by classroom teachers/graduate students, each chapter contextualizes the teacher's primary concerns. Offering a succinct literature review, research methodology, data collection, and research findings, each chapter smoothly applies theory and research to practice and purpose. Through reflectivity, the authors make powerful connections between and among their concerns and the learning; their concerns and the teaching, their concerns and past educational scholarship, and their concerns and future educational practices. Collectively, the authors' concerns and conversations represent P-12 classrooms near and far; the chapters provide insight, innovation, and inspiration particularly for P-12 classroom teachers experiencing anticipated transformations during their first five years as career educators as well as teacher educators, school administrators, and staff developers who guide, support, and model agency and efficacy with practicing teachers and teacher candidates.

As a teacher educator, I found this book to be both timely and inspirational. The stories presented from classroom teachers who had participated in MARP, MA with a Focus on Reflective Practice, demonstrated how powerful teacher inquiry and practice can be in bringing about transformational thinking and teaching. The teachers stories were real and motivated me to reflect on my own practice and work with teachers. To further support the reader, a semester-by-semester plan of the MARP program provides the background of how this transformation was accomplished; including reflections from faculty on key assignments and readings. I once again found myself reflecting on my practice and thinking about how I could incorporate key ideas into my work. This is an inspiring read for teachers at all levels.

Author Bio

Marjori Krebs is Professor at the University of New Mexico in the Department of Teacher Education, Educational Leadership, and Policy.

Cheryl Torrez is professor in the Department of Teacher Education, Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of New Mexico.