1: Toward Wisdom through Conversation Across Epistemologies^*

How can research help teachers to teach more effectively, and help teacher educators to assist them? On the surface, this seems like it should be a relatively simple, straightforward question to answer. However, as I will argue, it is not. One's answer depends on how one conceives of the education process and the purpose of schools (what counts as effective teaching?), the nature of teaching and teacher education (what counts as assisting someone else in teaching, learning, and learning to teach?), and research itself (what counts as knowledge and as legitimate processes of knowledge construction?). I am not the first, nor will I be the last, to attempt a useful synthesis of research on teaching and teacher education. Indeed, one can consult voluminous handbooks that have taken up this task in great detail (e.g., Sikula, Buttery, & Guyton, 1996; Wittrock, 1986). But, having worked for years as both a teacher educator and a researcher, and having read widely on the subject and engaged in many conversations at both local and national levels, I have a perspective to offer. The following story will illustrate this perspective, as well as the direction this chapter will take.