as individuals, committed to a personal and professional life of self-exploration and inquiry. We believe that through selfawareness you will awaken to who you are and what•you believe in; and, in turn, your teaching will be steeped in discovely, inventiveness, and experimentation whilegrounded in deeply held beliefs and values. We will use the term autobiographical inquiry, to describe this type of disciplined professional study.
The opening vignette introduced Sue Lyons as a first-year teacher embarking on a personal and professional journey of self-discovery. We hope it will offer you who are considering teaching as your profession guidelines for beginning to get to know yourselves better. The discussion that follows will encourage you to appreciate within yourselves the uniqueness that is you and to nurture the "call" to the teaching profession that your heart has heard. The suggestions offered here will help you become more attuned to another dimension of your professional self-a more poetic dimension that is cultivated and refined through personal soul-searching and continual revitalization. Through autobiographical inquiry, you challenge yourself to be in touch with the enchantment of teaching-learning transactions.
FIVE DIMENSIONS OF
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INQUIRY

To become the responsible, caring, and inquiring adults we desire to be as teachers, we first need to challenge ourselves out of our comfort zones, and "develop the authority to teach, the capacity to stand [our] ground in the midst of the complex forces of both the classroom and [our] own [lives] ..." (Palmer, 1998, p. 32). This requires an awakening of our authentic selves, a deepening of our capacity to think deeply and soulfully. It means developing a generous and generative spirit, a love for growth for ourselves and others, and a caring and compassionate nature. This necessitates our making some conscious choices, really planning the journey we are embarking on, knowing the direction we need to follow to become the person we want to be. And perhaps most important, it means making a commitment to the journey-no matter how long it takes, how difficult the terrain, or how stormy the weather along the way. As Palmer (1998) reminds us, "When I do not know myself, I