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In their wonderful new book, From Teaching to Thinking, authors Ann Pelo and Margie Carter offer this encouragement to educators working with young children:

“In early childhood programs committed to inquiry, educators value (and are valued for) their questions about the meaning of children’s play, and about the complexities of learning. Educators embrace their uncertainty, and seek out divergent perspectives in order to add to the complexity of their thinking. They come together in the shared project of constructing new understandings and uncovering new questions about their work. Educators look to their intuition and listen to their hearts with as much regard as they tend to their formal knowledge. They are fully present in the moment-by-moment unfolding of life that they share with each other and with children, leaning forward with eager curiosity and with glad engagement, confident that what offers itself is worthy of their full attention. This is what it means to be an educator in a culture of inquiry.”

“We stand side by side with educators, companions with them on their journey to the fullest expression of their identity and integrity. We think with them about teaching and learning, about children, about their delights and puzzlements and challenges and longings. We don’t set out to mold educators into some pre-established notion of who we think they ought to be or how we believe they ought to think or feel. Our aim is to strengthen educators’ identity as thinkers and researchers, as people engaged by inquiry rather than beholden to instruction.”

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