I am preparing to embark on a journey. The purpose of my journey is to focus on myself as a lifelong learner continually reviewing my values and practice to bring about improvement and contribute to the professional knowledge base of educators. The beginning of each school year commences with a new action-reflection cycle where I identify criteria for improvement and begin my quest to improve my practice. My journey begins with a personal history exploration in a quest to find the keys that unlock my understanding of myself as a teacher/researcher/consultant. I visit my childhood experiences associated with learning, including my family life and recollections of school days in formal and informal settings. I attempt "to make known the implicit theories, values, and beliefs" (Cole & Knowles, 2000, p. 28) that underpin my teaching and being as a teacher consultant.

One of the best or surest places to start a project of educational change that will be significant and effective is the teaching self. Especially when they are shared, small projects of teacher reinvention take on social and political as well as personal meaning, outlining pedagogical possibilities of hope through action. (Mitchell & Weber, 1999, p. 232)

My research is self-developing, and in examining my own practice I create a living form of educational theory (Whitehead, 1993). In submitting my research for legitimation and accreditation by the Faculty, I am attempting to contribute to the professional knowledge base of educators.

I used action research as an intervention in my personal practice to bring about educational improvement from 1997 to 1999. Through critical reflection I reviewed my current practice in the classroom. Criteria for improvement were then identified, and a special kind of research question was developed fitting the pronoun "I" into my research and action (McNiff, Lomax, & Whitehead, 1997). My new action-reflection cycle developed in 1999 in my role as combined grades 3 and 4 teacher for the Grand Erie District School Board. My question evolved when the nature of my job changed from classroom teacher to teacher consultant.

In my role as Teacher Consultant - Primary Division for the Grand Erie District School Board, I worked collegially with principals, teachers, curriculum support staff, and the Program Coordinators of Curriculum and Assessment to implement initiatives and improve classroom practice. The nature of my role as teacher consultant changed, and my study reveals the struggle and frustration I faced as I became a level removed from the classroom. My role was to support schools and teachers as they planned to improve student learning. My connections were to the teachers and not the students in the classroom. To determine if I was improving student learning, I needed to receive feedback from teachers.

The self-regulatory body of the teaching profession in Ontario, The Ontario College of Teachers, has produced the document, "Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession" (Ontario College of Teachers [OCT], 1999). The document consists of statements that are expanded to include the standards of practice for the teaching profession. Delong and Whitehead (1998) suggest that linking standards of practice to action research endeavours is critical to creating standards that are living and developmental. In my "Living Standards of Practice" I share narratives of my professional growth and relationships that are my living and developmental values (Laidlaw, 1998) to answer the question, "How can I as a teacher-consultant support teachers to improve student learning and improve the quality of my influence through an exploration of my living and developmental values in my professional practice?"

As you read my work, you will find that the form of my study is a narrative. Chapter One is a personal history exploration explaining my values and from where they came. Chapter Two provides a description of the orientation and method of my research study, explains action research, and presents the reason for my choice of the living theory approach to action research using narrative form. When my research commenced and how I reformulated my initial question are detailed. The characters and the setting of my research study are described. Clandinin and Connelly (1994) suggest methods for analyzing our stories so we understand their significance in our present practice. The methods for the study of personal experience are focussed in "four directions: inward and outward, backward and forward" (Clandinin & Connelly, p. 417). These methods will be explained more fully in Chapter Two as they relate to each of the chapters in my study. Chapter Three reports the initiating event of my study, weaving the voices of people in my personal and professional life, academic literature, as well as my own voice in my vision quest of support to improve student learning. Chapter Four describes the complications in my quest to improve student learning. Chapter Five presents the resolution and concluding statement describing how I understood that my educational knowledge is my living educational theory which can be judged by using my values as my Standards of Practice/Standards of Judgements (Delong, 2001; Holley, 1997).