From Tununak to Beaufort: Taking a Critical Inquiry Stance as a First Year Teacher

• Published in: English education Vol. 36; no. 4; pp. 263 - 288
• Main Authors: Fecho, Bob, Price, Kim, Read, Chris
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Urbana National Council of Teachers of English 01-07-2004
• Subjects: Alaska; Alaska Natives; Beginning Teachers; Case Studies; Classroom management; College instruction; Context Effect; Critical Thinking; Cultural Awareness; Cultural Influences; Educational research; Electronic Mail; Email; Eskimos; Inquiry; Internships; Literary criticism; Pedagogy; Preservice Teachers; Professional practice; Reading instruction; Reflective Teaching; Secondary school teachers; South Carolina; Standardized Tests; Teachers; Teaching; Writing instruction; Alaska; South Carolina; New York; Chicago Illinois; Georgia; United States > US
• ISSN: 0007-8204; 1943-2216
• DOI: 10.58680/ee20042815

In this article, the authors show how two first year teachers a continent apart--Kim in the village of Tununak on the Bering Sea in Alaska and Chris in Beaufort, South Carolina, on the Atlantic Ocean--were able to take inquiry stances on their classrooms. In particular, through analysis of e-mails written in Chris' and Kim's first years of teaching, the authors also show ways in which the students they taught inquired into their lives and that of others around them. However, more to the point, they describe how Kim and Chris used inquiry to reflect on their practice and to develop deeper and more useful understandings of their students and their cultures. The intent of this work is to make an argument that first year teachers are not only capable of enacting critical inquiry in their classrooms, but, by doing so, they enable their first year practice.