BY CHART AND CHANCE AND PASSION - THE IMPORTANCE OF RELATIONAL KNOWING IN LEARNING TO TEACH

This paper is a narrative drawn from a six-year conversation with two female elementary school teachers as they are learning to teach litera cy. The teachers were part of a larger longitudinal investigation on l earning to teach that began with their preservice teacher education pr ograms at a research university on the West Coast. This report summari zes conversational data collected in both classrooms during the fifth year. The stories that emerge suggest that program emphases-a cognitiv e understanding of both the popular and research-based approaches to l iteracy instruction-was insufficient for teaching multiethnic children in urban classrooms. Rather, teachers' relational knowing stands out in the narrative. Factors that supported these teachers' knowing throu gh relationship included opportunities for sustained conversation whil e learning to teach, a passionate and political belief in themselves a nd their children as knowledge creators and evaluators, a willingness to create eclectic approaches to literacy characterized by relational integrity, and a propensity to look critically at both their children and themselves in relationship to evaluate the results.