4: Awareness and Inquiry

In addition to the theme of student–teacher power relations, the themes of awareness and inquiry emerge when analyzing the texts of In the Middle, The Art of Teaching Writing, and Seeking Diversity. This chapter examines the way each of the authors deals with the themes of awareness and inquiry and considers how their treatment of the themes relates to the critical paradigm. As with the theme of student–teacher power relations, the themes of awareness and inquiry emerge differently in each of the texts. Therefore, once again, each of the texts will be addressed individually. As with the previous chapter, comparison across texts can allow for the uniqueness in each text to become evident. Shor’s “critical paradigm” remains important to this discussion.