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The theme of this issue is 'A community-based approach to literacy programs: taking learners' lives into account'. Selected chapters are indexed from TD/TNC 64.145 to TD/TNC 64.149. Program-setting dynamics may promote or impede adults' participation and learning. This chapter examines a process of staff development that centres on reflection as a means of improving these dynamics. Inquiry-based professional development positions teachers as active and reflective, able to construct their own professional practice and to generate as well as use knowledge. Through this process, teachers have learning opportunities which are embedded in their workplace routines and cultures. The author describes the work of the Adult Literacy Practitioner Inquiry Project begun in the United States of America in 1990 as an example of building a practitioner inquiry community and discusses some of the consequences of working together in inquiry-based staff development for diverse groups of literacy educators and learners.