A Multi-Case Study Examining Reflection within Collaborative Teacher Inquiry

Collaborative teacher inquiry is a learning process that is often conceptualized as involving teacher teams in the investigation of their own practice. I drew from constructivist (Dewey, 1910), situated (Lave & Wegner, 1991), and transformative learning (Mezirow, 1991) theories to conduct a qualitative multi-case study that examined teacher teams across two school districts implementing a collaborative inquiry process as a means for promoting teacher learning. Specifically, this research examined whether and how enactment of collaborative inquiry and teacher conversational routines influenced reflection, while also investigating the teacher learning experiences and outcomes generated. During the course of the study, teacher teams did not engage in critical reflection, the highest level of reflection within the scope of collaborative inquiry. Certain factors related to the enactment of collaborative inquiry were found to promote or limit reflective dialogue more generally. Factors found to promote reflection included the visual representation of data across classrooms for comparison of instructional practices, the investigation of an instructional problem focused on teacher strategy, joint lesson planning, and the use of revising questions during team discussions. The utilization of protocols that guided teachers to consider past practices promoted pedagogical reflection, but was insufficient for cultivating critical reflection. Whether or how teams utilized student learning data was found to influence reflection. Reflection was limited when student learning data was not utilized or when teams used data for planning without consideration of past practice. Additionally, reflection was limited when teachers normalized a problem of practice without asking revising questions. Overall, the highest level of reflection observed within collaborative teacher inquiry was pedagogical reflection and teams that engaged in pedagogical reflection were more likely to experience transformative learning related to content and pedagogy which subsequently led to changes to instructional practices. Teacher learning and opportunities to make changes to practice were undermined when teacher reflection was limited to technical or non-reflective levels. Findings from this study suggest that the framing of collaborative inquiry and the enactment of components within the process, as well as teachers’ conversational routines, are of consequence to reflection, teacher learning, and instructional outcomes.