investigaciones

photographs, and created posters and games. Some
explored music, knitting, needlework, weaving, and
woodworking. And as we explored a wide range of creative
arts with attention to our specific curricular disciplines, we
developed an understanding of how creativity is the heart
of everything we do as teachers.
Fifth, the M.Ed. cohort was an adventure in courage. As
teacher-researchers, we took many risks as we
deconstructed and reconstructed the stories we live by, as
we demythologized and remythologized the energies,
passions, and hopes that motivate us. We were all
committed to self-reflexivity, like the Norman Rockwell
illustration in which Norman Rockwell is drawing Norman
Rockwell as he observes Norman Rockwell drawing in a
mirror. This is not narcissistic and destructive selfabsorption,
but the self-reflexivity of Socrates, who walked
in the garden, a train of students in tow, questions rising
like soap bubbles. In the cohort, we created a community
of questioners committed to the truth that beyond every
question is another question, the truth that, while truth is
never wholly attainable, the striving for it is the true way.
We resonated with Paulo Freire’s voice, full of passion and
hope, compassion and concern: “Each day be open to the
world, be ready to think; each day be ready not to accept
what is said just because it is said, be predisposed to reread
what is read; each day investigate, question, and doubt”
(Politics, p. 181). As teacher-researchers, we were all devoted
to interrogation and critique and discovery; we were
willing to be challenged and surprised; we were eager to
enter into relationships founded on diverse perspectives
and experiences.
As teacherresearchers,
we
were all devoted to
interrogation and
critique and
discovery; we were
willing to be
challenged and
surprised; we were
eager to enter into
relationships
founded on diverse
perspectives and
experiences.
Sixth, the M.Ed. cohort was a lively and lovely
celebration. I have never known a group that enjoyed
celebrating more than the Kitimat cohort. They thoroughly
enjoyed being together. It has been a grand journey, and I
dedicate the following poem to the Kitimat teacherresearchers
with gratitude for the opportunities to continue
searching the tangled places of pedagogy. Thank you,
Carol, Dennis, Dick, Dighton, Elizabeth, Heather, Jackie,
Janise, Julie, Kris, Madeleine, Maureen, Moreno, Nick, Reid,
Rick, Sharon, Shelley, Tina, and Walter.
4
Teacher Research in the Backyard