Teacher Education Quarterly, Summer 2006 Student Teacher Inquiry as an “Entry Point” for Advocacy

Much has been written about the value of teacher research for inservice teachers. Hollingsworth and Sockett (1994) present teacher research as a viable source of teacher knowledge and a force within the movement toward increased professional-ism of teachers. Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1999) describe five major trends in the teacher research literature: (1) the prominence of teacher research in teacher educa-tion; (2) teacher research as part of school reform; (3) the genesis of conceptual frameworks for teacher research; (4) teacher research as ways of knowing in commu-nities; (5) teacher research as practical inquiry. Despite these affirming words, studies that richly describe how student teachers learn to do teacher research and then investigate the impact of inquiry on student teachers and teacher educators, particularly in culturally and linguistically diverse settings are rare (Fueyo & Neves, 1995; Grant and Secada, 1990; Olmedo, 1997). This study provides a description of two models of preservice inquiry and an analysis of their value over time as perceived by two teacher educators working with five cohorts of student teachers in promoting the role of teacher research in culturally and linguisti-Barbara J. Merino is a professor and director of teacher education and Pauline Holmes is a supervisor of teacher education, both with th