Developing Critical Mass

Abstract

This article is an argument for imagining an ecological approach to supporting beginning teachers in critical inquiry classrooms. Working from anecdotal evidence suggesting that beginning teachers suffer from a lack of support for their efforts at establishing critical inquiry, the author suggests that educators need to think beyond the traditional structures of teacher education and consider ways of working that bridge the last years of college with the first years of teaching. Furthermore, there is a need to investigate partnerships between schools and universities that support a range of reflective practices by creating a critical mass of inquiry-based educators within school districts. To support this argument, the author shares the journals of a recent student teacher who benefited from placement in a small learning community that has embraced critical inquiry principles. In essence, educators need to recognize again the process of inquiry and use that process to support its continued use.