Ritchie, J. S. & Wilson, D. E. (2000). Teacher Narrative as Critical Inquiry: Rewriting the Script.

Ritchie, J. S. & Wilson, D. E. (2000). Teacher Narrative as Critical Inquiry: Rewriting the Script. New York: Teachers College. (200 pp., ISBN 0-8077-3960-X).

"Teaching and learning consist of more complex patterns of interaction than occur within the narrow boundaries of formal, didactic, authoritarian models of teaching and learning," say Ritchie and Wilson on page 50 of Teacher Narrative as Critical Inquiry: Rewriting the Script. This timely text makes a case for the nontraditional interactions between teacher and student and teacher and his or her own inner self as one of those aforementioned "more complex patterns" that the authors suggest is essential for understanding the "why" of teaching. In this era of reflection both for teachers taking the National Teacher Certification Exams and students within certain classes, the idea of reflecting on our images of good teaching seems appropriate. At a local educational conference, Dr. Robert Brooks spoke of his work with troubled youth. He shocked the audience with his description of the school door painted by a young boy. The door had giant ragged teeth ready to chew the boy up each day. Ritchie and Wilson suggest that as educators, we need to reflect deeply on how we feel about our educational past. In Chapter 5, Carol MacDaniels spoke of her schooling as "being silenced." In this time of too-busy people, both in our vocations and avocations, the call to pause and write and think of who and how we are as teachers may seem one last pull on our precious and limited time. The authors make a solid case for their belief that, although time-consuming, reflection is essential to become the teachers who understand the "why" of their lives and, therefore, their classrooms. They would perhaps amend Socrates' quote that the "unexamined life is not worth living" to say that the unexamined life makes unworthy teaching.

The first four chapters present a layout of the principles and contradictions found in comparing those ideals of teaching to the life in the real classroom. A voiced concern is the preparation of future teachers who have little understanding of the principles of education pedagogy and few internal images of good teaching. The book is based on a ten-year period of formal and informal study of preservice and inservice teachers. The formal study (1989-92) was funded by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the University of Nebraska-Lincoln /Research Council (UN-L) and the UN-L Chancellor for Graduate Studies and Research. The full study involved multiple interviews over six semesters, observations in both classes and preservice teaching experiences, and analysis of writing. The chapters are: The Interplay of Subjectivity, Experience, and Narrative in Teacher Development; Dual Apprenticeships: Conflicting Narratives in Teacher Preparation; Untheorized Experience: Crisis of Authority; and Reclaiming and Revising Personal and Professional Identities. Some of the authors" concerns are clearly indicated in the chapter titles. The second section of the book is a series of four reflections by teachers at varying stages in their career. These teachers share a passage on their journey and how it has impacted their teaching. Key in these reflections is the depths to which the teachers delve that gives the reader insight into their methods and motivations.

In developing the theme of the conflict between teaching and learning in Chapter 2, research by Apple (1982), Giroux (1938) and Freire and Macedo (1987) was cited to describe the two camps of ideology the authors see manifested in the world of education today. One camp is that of the persuasive "positivist ideology of knowledge, teaching, and learning, in which one continues to conserve and reproduce status quo" (p. 30). Teachers are to fit into molds and perpetuate the power structure by using "teacherproof" textbooks and other means of weakening the teachers' ability to be critical decision makers. This ideology is contrasted with progressive reform taking the "varied perspectives of social constructionist, cognitive psychological, poststructuralist, critical, feminist, and cultural theorists" (p. 31), and depicting knowledge as partial, fluid, and situated in the learner in a social context. The authors call this dichotomous situation the "dual apprenticeships" of teacher education. The authors reflect within the first four chapters on how the understanding of the dual apprenticeship should change the instruction of potential teachers. They also came to realize their own lack of reflection on the critical issues behind the image of a "great" teacher who stands before the class and dispenses knowledge and one who truly motivates and propels students to higher levels of self-realization.

The first personal narrative is by Carol MacDaniels entitled, "Renaming as an Act of Resistance." In her reflection she speaks of her travails moving from a "nice" young woman who obeyed first father, then husband. MacDaniels was a person who was "being silenced" at school and at home. Writing her story was only part of her journey toward finding her voice. With Ritchie and Wilson, she was challenged to pull her stories apart to ask why things happened as they did. Emerging now into an "evolving" teacher who seeks to create open, caring classrooms and professional relationships with her students, she understands that to resist the easy answers is both frightening and rewarding. She implores us to remember that all of us bring our past lives with us into our classes and therefore it is important to keep our vision focused on the students and their work, not ourselves. The essential message of MacDaniels's journey is that "writing stories is the first step in a process of constructing meaning of our lived experiences" (p. 107).

Toni Siedel's chapter is entitled "Claiming Authority: Learning to Trust my Questions." Siedel's section begins with a quote from her 1990 diary, "I feel really insecure about what I know as a teacher" (p. 113). Later she confides that she has felt that insecurity every day of her 9-year teaching career. Siedel uses her uncertainty as "a catalyst, causing me to pursue the nagging questions I face" (p. 113). The Nebraska Writing Project (NWP) offered Siedel an opportunity to build a foundation for her teaching. In this setting she was introduced to the process of writing and "thinking about writing." She focuses on the importance of discussion of issues and collaboration among peers as essential steps in revision of writing and thinking. Her insights allowed her to mark an "important shift in my pedagogy and helped me revise my vision of 'teacher as expert'" (p. 118). Siedel also shares that her questioning lead her to such places as becoming advisor to the Gay/Lesbian/Bi-sexual/Straight Alliance. Her message is that one should "never be so sure of what I'm doing that I stop asking questions" (p. 128).

"Privilege as Possibility" by John Skretta discusses the barriers that are set up between the adult, a person of perceived or real privilege, and the student. He speaks of the privileges of class, gender, knowledge of the printed word, and mentorship. Skretta also writes of privilege as a moral mandate to change and to interact with the students. The section that I felt warranted attention as a teacher was the section on "Privilege and the Printed Word." Skretta writes how, although as a high school student, he could not comprehend great thinkers like Kant or Nietzsche, he felt confident that he would later in life. He was certain that the text would relate to his later level of knowledge and maturing intellectual situations. Such was his relationship with the world of print. As a teacher, however, he found his students "won't wade into works that they view as formidable" (p. 142). He feels strongly that "'until all students see themselves reflected in the authors and characters of the works we ask them to read, all students will not be able to see themselves as talking back to those books and becoming part of that tradition" (p. 143).

The last teacher, Ruth Kupfer, reflects on "Retracing My Journey Toward Self- Acceptance and Effectiveness as a Lesbian Teacher." Part of Kupfer's story is the personal journey of discovering her lesbian self and the other part is how she has used her self-acceptance to help other students. Kupfer begins her narrative with a description of her teaching for half of her career as "frontal teaching" with the proper amount of distance between student and "the authoritarian aura around the teacher" (p. 150). She expresses more satisfaction in her teaching as she moves toward student autonomy and student-centered, cooperative classrooms. Kupfer stresses that we can be changed by transformative reading and interaction with skilled and extraordinary people. She also urges honesty in the classroom setting, an environment which Kupfer admits may take years to create.

The final chapter in this book, "Toward Supporting Resistance and Revision," is by the authors of the study. It opens with a quote by bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, "Coming to voice is not just the act of telling one's experience. It is using that telling strategically-to come to voice so that you can also speak freely about other subjects" (p. 171). Ritchie and Wilson reiterate their ideas for the importance of reflection on research and self and moving those ideas into the classroom. They close this easily read book with their recommendation that, "the potential for teacher change--teachers revising their conceptions of and practices surrounding language learning--is not located in programs or classes that do something to teachers or give teachers new 'methods' or information. Instead, change is made possible and becomes sustainable when teachers gain critical perspective on how their identities have been constructed" (p. 180) and bring those critical perspectives into their classrooms. As teachers of gifted students, it is our work to open ourselves to emerging ideas of what is appropriate for our students through investigation of new research, new methods, and new forms of evaluation. We should, like Kupfer, no longer be content with "frontal teaching," but find ways to connect with examples from our past of the best teachers and teaching and strive to create those enriching and life-changing situations for our gifted students.

Reviewed by Janice M. Walz, Young Scholars Teacher (a day long program for gifted students in grades 4-6), WSWHE BOCES, Saratoga Springs, New York.