Critical Inquiry in Early Childhood Education:

candace r. kuby W hen I finished reading an interesting article called “Being Across Homes ” by Olga Hubbard (Teachers College Record 2011), and I sat down to write this brief introduction to Candace Kuby’s wonderful piece on critical inquiry, I thought about the powerful connections between the two. Hubbard frames her inquiry as “How is our sense of self influenced by the place where we live? And what happens when our lives take place in two different homes, two cultures? ” This is essentially the focus of Kuby’s piece, as she exam-ines the social, educational, political, and cultural implications of one small inci-dent at a school site where she worked one summer. Observant and perceptive, Kuby used this incident to embark on a personally and professionally meaningful curricular and inquiry journey with her young students, examining critical topics of social justice and power and voice for both children and adults. Kuby’s project echoes Hubbard’s in powerful ways—showing the power of teacher research and narrative for helping us to feel more at home in the places where we live, work, and learn. As Kuby shows us, it is only in this journey do we build and strengthen a sense of self as teachers, children, families, community members. —Daniel Meier candace kuby, PhD, is a