{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/107988"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/107988","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"“Grass doesn’t grow faster because you pull it”: The way and the journey of becoming an inquiry teacher","abstract":"There is a need to prepare teachers for a changing educational landscape as more schools and states are adopting and mandating the use of inquiry-based instruction alongside curricular mandates (ISBE, 2017a, 2017b; National Research Council, 2012; NGSS Lead States, 2013). This study brings into focus novice teachers’ inquiry stances with regard to coconstructed practices such as inquiry-based learning and pedagogical documentation. Additional empirical understandings about how novice teachers engage with inquiry-based pedagogies will inform education initiatives geared at promoting inquiry practices. I adopted a Deweyan (1904, 1933, 1938a) theoretical framework using his theories of teacher growth, inquiry, and progressive education as a means of engaging with and viewing the empirical realities faced by teachers new to inquiry teaching. I used an embedded case study design to look closely at three individual novice teachers’ learning and inquiry stances within a single case K-1 classroom that included the mentor teacher and 21 children aged 5-7. My fieldwork took place across 6 months as two new co-teachers and a student teacher were mentored by an experienced head teacher. Data included observations of the classroom and teacher meetings, interviews, and artifacts to answer the following questions: 1. How do messages novice teachers receive from the head teacher and school context communicate what was valued inside the K-1 inquiry classroom? 2. How do these novice teachers become inquiry teachers and show and develop dispositions and habits of reflective thinking as they implement an inquiry-based emergent curriculum? 3. How do these novice teachers use their practice of documentation to see, think, wonder, investigate, and act? My analysis of the data shows a strong mirroring effect between social-emotional, intellectual, and academic learning found at the level of the children and the novice teachers. This shared core curriculum uncovered prerequisites like self and social awareness and dispositions for and habits of reflective thinking needed for student learning through inquiry and teachers learning to implement inquiry. The academic learning gained by novice teachers included theory, pedagogical methods, and subject matter. While the content of academic learning was naturally different than the children’s, how academics intersected and were learned alongside the social-emotional and intellectual curriculum held steady between children and novice teachers. Although the core curriculum of social-emotional, intellectual, and academic learning was presented to all the novice teachers by the head teacher, each novice teacher interacted with the three elements in different ways and to varying degrees and were differentially supported in their individual learning journeys. I discovered documentation was closely linked to the intellectual and academic curriculum of becoming an inquiry teacher. Novice teachers’ documentation practice also supported their social-emotional learning, as seen in each’s personal significant inquiry.","abstract_html":"There is a need to prepare teachers for a changing educational landscape as more schools and states are adopting and mandating the use of inquiry-based instruction alongside curricular mandates (ISBE, 2017a, 2017b; National Research Council, 2012; NGSS Lead States, 2013). This study brings into focus novice teachers’ inquiry stances with regard to coconstructed practices such as inquiry-based learning and pedagogical documentation. Additional empirical understandings about how novice teachers engage with inquiry-based pedagogies will inform education initiatives geared at promoting inquiry practices. I adopted a Deweyan (1904, 1933, 1938a) theoretical framework using his theories of teacher growth, inquiry, and progressive education as a means of engaging with and viewing the empirical realities faced by teachers new to inquiry teaching. I used an embedded case study design to look closely at three individual novice teachers’ learning and inquiry stances within a single case K-1 classroom that included the mentor teacher and 21 children aged 5-7. My fieldwork took place across 6 months as two new co-teachers and a student teacher were mentored by an experienced head teacher. Data included observations of the classroom and teacher meetings, interviews, and artifacts to answer the following questions: 1. How do messages novice teachers receive from the head teacher and school context communicate what was valued inside the K-1 inquiry classroom? 2. How do these novice teachers become inquiry teachers and show and develop dispositions and habits of reflective thinking as they implement an inquiry-based emergent curriculum? 3. How do these novice teachers use their practice of documentation to see, think, wonder, investigate, and act? My analysis of the data shows a strong mirroring effect between social-emotional, intellectual, and academic learning found at the level of the children and the novice teachers. This shared core curriculum uncovered prerequisites like self and social awareness and dispositions for and habits of reflective thinking needed for student learning through inquiry and teachers learning to implement inquiry. The academic learning gained by novice teachers included theory, pedagogical methods, and subject matter. While the content of academic learning was naturally different than the children’s, how academics intersected and were learned alongside the social-emotional and intellectual curriculum held steady between children and novice teachers. Although the core curriculum of social-emotional, intellectual, and academic learning was presented to all the novice teachers by the head teacher, each novice teacher interacted with the three elements in different ways and to varying degrees and were differentially supported in their individual learning journeys. I discovered documentation was closely linked to the intellectual and academic curriculum of becoming an inquiry teacher. Novice teachers’ documentation practice also supported their social-emotional learning, as seen in each’s personal significant inquiry.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Cordoba, Tanya Espinosa"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Curriculum and Instruction","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Smith, Stephanie S","Bresler, Liora","Parsons, Marilyn J","McBride, Brent"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2020,"date_issued":"2020-08-26T21:54:52Z","date_published":"2020-08-26T21:54:52Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:47Z","subjects":["Inquiry learning, inquiry-based learning, project-based learning, Dewey, progressive education, Reggio Emilia approach, project approach, Katz, emergent curriculum, early childhood education, elementary, novice teachers,"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2020 Tanya Espinosa Cordoba"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/107988","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Smith, Stephanie S","Bresler, Liora","Parsons, Marilyn J","McBride, Brent"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Cordoba, Tanya Espinosa"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2020-08-26T21:54:52Z","2020-05-06","2020-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text","Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Curriculum and Instruction"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Inquiry learning, inquiry-based learning, project-based learning, Dewey, progressive education, Reggio Emilia approach, project approach, Katz, emergent curriculum, early childhood education, elementary, novice teachers,"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2020 Tanya Espinosa Cordoba"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/107988"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["There is a need to prepare teachers for a changing educational landscape as more schools and states are adopting and mandating the use of inquiry-based instruction alongside curricular mandates (ISBE, 2017a, 2017b; National Research Council, 2012; NGSS Lead States, 2013). This study brings into focus novice teachers’ inquiry stances with regard to coconstructed practices such as inquiry-based learning and pedagogical documentation. Additional empirical understandings about how novice teachers engage with inquiry-based pedagogies will inform education initiatives geared at promoting inquiry practices. I adopted a Deweyan (1904, 1933, 1938a) theoretical framework using his theories of teacher growth, inquiry, and progressive education as a means of engaging with and viewing the empirical realities faced by teachers new to inquiry teaching. I used an embedded case study design to look closely at three individual novice teachers’ learning and inquiry stances within a single case K-1 classroom that included the mentor teacher and 21 children aged 5-7. My fieldwork took place across 6 months as two new co-teachers and a student teacher were mentored by an experienced head teacher. Data included observations of the classroom and teacher meetings, interviews, and artifacts to answer the following questions: 1. How do messages novice teachers receive from the head teacher and school context communicate what was valued inside the K-1 inquiry classroom? 2. How do these novice teachers become inquiry teachers and show and develop dispositions and habits of reflective thinking as they implement an inquiry-based emergent curriculum? 3. How do these novice teachers use their practice of documentation to see, think, wonder, investigate, and act? My analysis of the data shows a strong mirroring effect between social-emotional, intellectual, and academic learning found at the level of the children and the novice teachers. This shared core curriculum uncovered prerequisites like self and social awareness and dispositions for and habits of reflective thinking needed for student learning through inquiry and teachers learning to implement inquiry. The academic learning gained by novice teachers included theory, pedagogical methods, and subject matter. While the content of academic learning was naturally different than the children’s, how academics intersected and were learned alongside the social-emotional and intellectual curriculum held steady between children and novice teachers. Although the core curriculum of social-emotional, intellectual, and academic learning was presented to all the novice teachers by the head teacher, each novice teacher interacted with the three elements in different ways and to varying degrees and were differentially supported in their individual learning journeys. I discovered documentation was closely linked to the intellectual and academic curriculum of becoming an inquiry teacher. Novice teachers’ documentation practice also supported their social-emotional learning, as seen in each’s personal significant inquiry.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2020-08-25 without embargo terms","The student, Tanya Cordoba, accepted the attached license on 2020-05-04 at 21:26.","The student, Tanya Cordoba, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2020-05-04 at 21:40.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2020-05-06 at 08:57.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #15204 on 2020-08-25 at 17:12:04","Made available in DSpace on 2020-08-26T21:54:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 CORDOBA-DISSERTATION-2020.pdf: 5281362 bytes, checksum: dccff5762e5ded86923eeb40ce0ac82d (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4210 bytes, checksum: 3fbb9ad960b817674a2abd8ec1b66721 (MD5) PROQUEST_LICENSE.txt: 4556 bytes, checksum: 35b5d42eb30969e4e56b67a48e3db7fc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2020-05-06"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["“Grass doesn’t grow faster because you pull it”: The way and the journey of becoming an inquiry teacher"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Smith, Stephanie S","Bresler, Liora","Parsons, Marilyn J","McBride, Brent"],"dc:creator":["Cordoba, Tanya Espinosa"],"dc:date":["2020-08-26T21:54:52Z","2020-05-06","2020-05"],"dc:description":["There is a need to prepare teachers for a changing educational landscape as more schools and states are adopting and mandating the use of inquiry-based instruction alongside curricular mandates (ISBE, 2017a, 2017b; National Research Council, 2012; NGSS Lead States, 2013). This study brings into focus novice teachers’ inquiry stances with regard to coconstructed practices such as inquiry-based learning and pedagogical documentation. Additional empirical understandings about how novice teachers engage with inquiry-based pedagogies will inform education initiatives geared at promoting inquiry practices. I adopted a Deweyan (1904, 1933, 1938a) theoretical framework using his theories of teacher growth, inquiry, and progressive education as a means of engaging with and viewing the empirical realities faced by teachers new to inquiry teaching. I used an embedded case study design to look closely at three individual novice teachers’ learning and inquiry stances within a single case K-1 classroom that included the mentor teacher and 21 children aged 5-7. My fieldwork took place across 6 months as two new co-teachers and a student teacher were mentored by an experienced head teacher. Data included observations of the classroom and teacher meetings, interviews, and artifacts to answer the following questions: 1. How do messages novice teachers receive from the head teacher and school context communicate what was valued inside the K-1 inquiry classroom? 2. How do these novice teachers become inquiry teachers and show and develop dispositions and habits of reflective thinking as they implement an inquiry-based emergent curriculum? 3. How do these novice teachers use their practice of documentation to see, think, wonder, investigate, and act? My analysis of the data shows a strong mirroring effect between social-emotional, intellectual, and academic learning found at the level of the children and the novice teachers. This shared core curriculum uncovered prerequisites like self and social awareness and dispositions for and habits of reflective thinking needed for student learning through inquiry and teachers learning to implement inquiry. The academic learning gained by novice teachers included theory, pedagogical methods, and subject matter. While the content of academic learning was naturally different than the children’s, how academics intersected and were learned alongside the social-emotional and intellectual curriculum held steady between children and novice teachers. Although the core curriculum of social-emotional, intellectual, and academic learning was presented to all the novice teachers by the head teacher, each novice teacher interacted with the three elements in different ways and to varying degrees and were differentially supported in their individual learning journeys. I discovered documentation was closely linked to the intellectual and academic curriculum of becoming an inquiry teacher. Novice teachers’ documentation practice also supported their social-emotional learning, as seen in each’s personal significant inquiry.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2020-08-25 without embargo terms","The student, Tanya Cordoba, accepted the attached license on 2020-05-04 at 21:26.","The student, Tanya Cordoba, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2020-05-04 at 21:40.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2020-05-06 at 08:57.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #15204 on 2020-08-25 at 17:12:04","Made available in DSpace on 2020-08-26T21:54:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 CORDOBA-DISSERTATION-2020.pdf: 5281362 bytes, checksum: dccff5762e5ded86923eeb40ce0ac82d (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4210 bytes, checksum: 3fbb9ad960b817674a2abd8ec1b66721 (MD5) PROQUEST_LICENSE.txt: 4556 bytes, checksum: 35b5d42eb30969e4e56b67a48e3db7fc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2020-05-06"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/107988"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2020 Tanya Espinosa Cordoba"],"dc:subject":["Inquiry learning, inquiry-based learning, project-based learning, Dewey, progressive education, Reggio Emilia approach, project approach, Katz, emergent curriculum, early childhood education, elementary, novice teachers,"],"dc:title":["“Grass doesn’t grow faster because you pull it”: The way and the journey of becoming an inquiry teacher"],"dc:type":["text","Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Curriculum and Instruction"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:47Z"}