The process of the inquiry is a hero(ine)'s journey, following the path:
The question
The threshold (point of no return) in search of finding out
People, amulets along the way to protect and empower you
Difficulties & Challenges
People you meet; charms, amulets, prayers you are given to see you through the ordeal
Journey ends successfully; sometimes not
You are transformed in the process
Teacher practitioner research represents the voice of educators to own their practice toward professional and personal empowerment. This process becomes a hero/heroine’s journey.
As social justice in action within our profession, teachers are in the trenches, on the front lines in classrooms everyday, doing what they love the most amid the noise of high stakes testing constraints, hierarchical administrative edicts, and interference at local, state and federal levels with political and economic ramifications.
Christenbury and Lindblom (2016) contend that as teachers:
We must reclaim our authority in the classroom: the classroom is ours, our province, our field of endeavor, and for us that work, that reclaiming, is wholly in service...of our common treasure, our students.
And this is something we need to make a concerted effort to tell our parents and the public. Although it is simply not possible for many of us to directly refuse school district mandates, to resign from our teaching positions, to put, as it were, our lives and careers and finances at stake, if what we are told in our classrooms contradicts what we know is best for students, we must take action. We need to remember that we have a civic, yes, a moral responsibility, to inquire, to question, and, at times, to challenge what is going on around us in the name of education and educational reform.....There is strength in numbers, but no one will listen to us if we don't speak first.
What is essential is not the national directive, the local curriculum guide, the standards, state or national; it is not the expertise of the administration, the funding of the school district, or even parental support. The foundation, the bedrock, the basis of any change or improvement in education in this country is the individual teacher in the individual classroom, working in service of our students' learning. (p. 382)
Teacher Todd DeStiger (as cited in Christenbury & Lindblom, 2016) advocates:
Teachers must cultivate an identity not just as instructors of academic content or even as activists dedicated to promoting democracy. Rather, citizen teachers must also think of themselves as social scientists striving to be more attuned to how their students view the world and how their culturally situated values shape the ways they think and live....For I have come to believe that in order to change the world for the better, our actions should begin and end face-to-face, cara-a-cara, with others. (p. 383)
Christenbury and Lindblom are advocating for a civil rights movement for teachers, as people of conscious.