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This study was conducted to examine a restructured inner-city school and a second-grade teacher's personal and collaborative efforts to teach all of her students to become literate. To do so, she needed to adopt a feminist view recasting the teacher's role in school reform as that of an individual with knowledge who can act upon the world, rather than that of a passive, retrainable object. The case study evolved over 4 years through twice-monthly classroom observations and interviews with a university research team, monthly group conversations with other beginning teachers, and personal instructional research with students. It speaks to the personal and professional risk a teacher must take to achieve self-actualization in voicing opinions, teaching in a responsible and equitable manner, and reporting valuable knowledge to others. Implications for teacher education include discussing with students the problems and successes of practice and the differences between public perceptions and private realities of schooling; ongoing, nonjudgmental support and response to teachers' perceptions; encouraging teacher research of their own practices; providing an audience for teachers' voices; and valuing teachers' ways of knowing centered on children and caring. (LL)