Inside/Outside: Teacher Research and Knowledge

The central concern of Inside/Outside is the assumption that pedagogical knowledge is generated outside-in; that is, from the university, to be applied at schools. The first half of this book provides a thoughtful and thought-provoking conceptual framework for reading and understanding teacher research, exploring its history, potential and relationship to university-based research. Cochran-Smith and Lytle argue that teacher research can transform, not simply add to, the present knowledge base in the field, linking research with practice and inquiry with reform. By doing so, they intend to add dimension and energy to the momentum in this area. In the second half of this volume, the voices of teacher researchers contrast, engage and combine with one another as contributors explore the meaning and significance of their approaches and findings. These authors - who vary in experience and institutional context as well as in the areas they teach - not only try to enrich the broader frameworks proposed in the first section of Inside/Outside, but also enter into the national conversation about school reform, teacher professionalism, multicultural curriculum and pedagogy, and language and literacy education. Together, the two parts of Inside/Outside make the case that the relationship of research and teaching is distinctly non-linear and that important knowledge about teaching is generated both inside and outside classrooms. Understanding this relationship has significant implications for the development of further knowledge and for the transformation of our schools. This book should be valuable as a text for both graduate and undergraduate courses in educational research, as well as graduate courses in language and literacy. It should be of interest to a broad spectrum of individuals, including pre-service teachers, practitioners, researchers, administrators and curriculum specialists.