Limited professional focus appears to impair teacher unions' external influence and internal communication. Inquiry and research may be used as a strategy to improve professional focus thereby increasing teacher unions' influence within the profession and helping them effectively address structural change issues. By shifting to the inquiry mode, the union would avoid making immediate responses, which are negatively portrayed, and gain more credibility. Means of supporting inquiry include utilization of electronic mail and World Wide Web sites, training in peer consultation and research, collaboration with external organizations, and support for individual research projects and small networks. Regardless of future policy shifts, a teacher union can participate in inquiry and research with limited resources. Four appendices contain: staff committee project report extracts, pages from "Teacher Inquirer" dealing with British Columbia (Canada) teacher research on the Internet, the English-as-a-Second Language home page, and teacher research in assessment project report extracts. (LH)