Developing an inquiry stance: a hermeneutic case analysis of an early-career teacher in a practitioner inquiry community

Prior scholarship has indicated that practitioner inquiry can support the development of an inquiry stance among pre-service and early-career teachers, particularly when conducted with the support of practitioner inquiry communities. Yet the connections between teachers’ experiences in practitioner inquiry communities and their development of inquiry stance are not well understood. This article responds with a hermeneutic case analysis of the developing inquiry stance of an early-career teacher in a practitioner inquiry community. Analysis of semi-structured interviews and social network mapping activities uncovered the pre-understandings, understandings, and new understandings of the teacher’s inquiry stance as they unfolded within the community. The teacher’s pre-understanding of inquiry stance emphasised inquiry as a time-bounded project that teachers do for their students with significant support. The teacher’s understanding during the community’s work emphasised inquiry as a way to centre students within teacher professional learning, a habitual way of being as a professional teacher, and a way of supporting colleagues. New understandings that emerged as implications for the field of teacher education emphasise how teacher educators might more explicitly position inquiry within the trajectory of teacher candidates’ careers and more intentionally build the kinds of multi-tiered clinical partnerships that can sustain inquiry stance development over time.