Collective Improvisation in a Teacher Education Community

As has been well illustrated in the other books in this series, the notion of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices has been taken up by teachers and teacher educators as they have searched for new ways of better understanding the complex work of teaching and learning. This is the story of a teacher education initiative. The project A Community of Inquiry in Teacher Education (CITE) has aimed to transform learning to teach from an experience based on the acquisition of skills to one centred on the cultivation of certain dispositions. CITE creates a program structure for integrating elements of university-based courses and school practicum experiences, with community based activities, and it utilizes a variety of instructional strategies and technology-based tools to create a series of ‘knowledge building communities’. As small-scale reform initiatives go (36 aspiring teachers each year) CITE has had a long and vibrant life, despite some inevitable struggles. It is the longevity of CITE that prompted the authors to turn their inquiries about teaching and learning to the challenges of sustaining their own project. The result is a collection that chronicles some of their own experiments, deliberations, and the lessons learned throughtheir many experiences. It is more accurate to say that Collective Improvisation is many stories, not just one. That is because this book represents the perspectives of university- based instructors, school partners, former students, and graduate student researchers, each of whom contribute a different and valued voice to the whole composition.