Reconstructing and Reorganizing Experience: Weaving a Living Philosophy

2021 ◽  
Vol 123 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Carol Rodgers ◽  
Marti Anderson ◽  
Beverley Burkett ◽  
Sean Conley ◽  
Claire Stanley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Research Design ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Reflective Inquiry ◽  
Inquiry Group ◽  
Ongoing Work ◽  
Self Study ◽  
Wide Awake ◽  
Background Context ◽  
Intelligent Action

Background/Context This study contributes to ongoing work in professional learning communities, self-study, and reflection. It offers a structure and a process rooted in a philosophy of practice grounded in various thinkers like Dewey, Rogers, Curran, Freire, Gattegno, Greene, and Carini. Purpose/Objective The purpose of this study is to explore the process of one teacher educator inquiry group that has lasted nearly 30 years, and which has sought to enact Dewey's notion of education, “that reconstruction or reorganization of experience that adds meaning to experience and increases ability to direct the course of subsequent experience.” Research Design Our research design mirrors the reflective inquiry process of our group, that is, how we researched is simultaneously what we researched. The process itself follows a structure for reflection outlined by Dewey in Rodgers. It begins with recollected experiences, descriptions of those experiences, and is followed by a “harvesting of themes,” through analysis and interpretation, to possible modes of “intelligent action.” The process is iterative and continuous. Conclusions Our conclusions go beyond mere descriptions of our process. We come to the realization that, as Greene writes, being “wide-awake” to the particularities of our lives and work; to live intentionally, deliberately, and morally; and to be aware of who and why we are, and are to each other, is essential to a democratic society.

scholarly journals An Autoethnographic Self-Study Navigating the Transition to Becoming a STEM Teacher Educator

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Professional Learning ◽  
Professional Growth ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Hybrid Approach ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
Multiple Data ◽  
Rich Description ◽  
Self Study ◽  
Cultural Self ◽  
Cultural Origins

This paper reports on a self-study where I take an autoethnographic stance in narrating my cultural origins, trajectory and identities as a teacher turned teacher educator working in the field of education in Ireland. Using self-study, I explore how my habitus has influenced my experiences of being a biology teacher at second level to teaching STEM education on initial teacher education programmes. Autoethnographic self-study is the hybrid approach used to describe and systematically analyse my experiences and learning as I struggle with a transitioning identity. The integrated use of both self-study and autoethnographic approaches enabled a deepened understanding of my professional practice and my embedded professional identity. Emergent findings from inductive analysis of multiple data sources from students, colleagues and my own reflections on my practice provide opportunities for rich description on three key domains. I present how reflection on the cultural self can lead to personal/professional growth and how seeing and hearing beyond my “self” facilitates significant and holistic professional learning. Finally, I discuss how my professional growth or stagnation as a STEM practitioner is predicated and mediated by meaningful collaboration with others.

Using a Game Sense Approach to Teach Buroinjin as an Aboriginal Game to Address Social Justice in Physical Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-185
Author(s):  
John Williams ◽  
Shane Pill
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Physical Education ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Learning Opportunity ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Self Study ◽  
National Capital ◽  
Indigenous Perspectives ◽  
Unit Of Work

Purpose: To explore a teacher educator professional learning opportunity within the context of a taught unit of work at a government primary school in Canberra, Australia’s national capital. The unit of work focus was a traditional Australian Aboriginal game taught using a Game Sense Approach to deliver a socially just version of quality physical education. Method: A qualitative self-study methodology was adopted where the participants were Author 1 and 49 Year 5 students (aged 10–11 years). Results: Game Sense Approach was found to be an effective professional learning opportunity for Author 1, while Author 2’s knowledge about Indigenous perspectives in physical education was extended. In addition, student participants valued the taught lessons, which highlighted issues of social justice. Discussion/Conclusion: It is possible for the self-study approach described here and seemingly incompatible epistemological approaches to work together to realize a socially just version of quality physical education that can inform physical education teaching beyond this study.

Love and Growth: On One Aspect of James Baldwin's Significance for Education

2015 ◽  
Vol 117 (9) ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
Jeff Frank
Keyword(s):  
Research Design ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Background Context

Background/Context Although James Baldwin's work is beginning to receive attention by political and social theorists, his work does not currently influence educational conversations. I believe this is unfortunate, and the goal of this article is to make the case that Baldwin's work has a great deal to teach educators, especially teacher educators. Research Design Reading through all of Baldwin's nonfiction, I draw out interconnected themes that run across his work, and which I found most interesting as I thought about my work as a teacher educator. These themes are: innocence, fear, and love. For each theme, I draw on different aspects of Baldwin's published nonfiction, attempting to create a conversation between aspects of Baldwin's work and issues of importance to teacher educators. Conclusions/Recommendations I conclude by making the case that Baldwin's work deserves a wider hearing, especially his thinking on love. I develop the concept of “tenacious understanding” to highlight the types of teaching that teacher educators will need to engage in if they are to realize Baldwin's prophetic call that I resound in this article.

Two Types of Interpersonal Listening

2010 ◽  
Vol 112 (11) ◽  
pp. 2743-2762
Author(s):  
Leonard J. Waks
Keyword(s):  
Research Design ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Philosophy Of Education ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Education Society ◽  
Background Context ◽  
Objective Research

Background/Context Although the concept of listening had been neglected by philosophers of education, it has received focused attention since 2003, when Sophie Haroutunian-Gordon addressed it in her presidential address to the Philosophy of Education Society. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Haroutunian-Gordon offered a cognitive theory of listening, according to which an act of listening involves raising questions about both the speaker's utterance and the listener's own beliefs. Research Design This article draws on the methods of philosophical analysis to provide a competing account of listening. This account distinguishes between two types of listening, a cognitive (thinking) type and a noncognitive (empathic feeling) type. Findings/Results By considering a number of familiar classroom incidents, I show that both kinds of listening have important roles in teaching and learning. Conclusions/Recommendations I conclude by questioning whether the empathic type of listening can directly be taught. I conclude that it cannot be, but that teachers can provide three kinds of “helps” indirectly to foster its growth in learners.

Mapping Curricular Assemblages

2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Paul William Eaton ◽  
Petra Munro Hendry
Keyword(s):  
Research Design ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Educative Process ◽  
Data Points ◽  
Relational Capacities ◽  
Background Context ◽  
Contemporary Schooling

Background/Context This article advances scholarship from curriculum theorists, educational philosophers, and educational researchers unpacking the dehumanizing aspects of education. Focus of Study The article maps the role of the tree as a measuring and organizing apparatus of curriculum and unpacks possibilities for utilizing rhizomes as a way to create movement in conceptualizing curriculum. Research Design In this article, we utilize Jackson and Mazzei's concept of thinking with theory. We bring into conversation Deleuze and Guattari's theoretical concepts of assemblage, arborescence, rhizomatics, and deterritorializing and Karen Barad's concepts of entanglement and intra-action. Conclusions The article proposes envisioning the tree and the rhizome as mutually constituted in contemporary curriculum discourses but asserts the continuing dominance of the tree as limiting the relational capacities of curriculum. Thinking curriculum arborescently dehumanizes contemporary schooling and education by reducing students, teachers, classrooms, and schools to data points. Rhizomatic thinking opens space for a relational, ethical, and ontological educative process of being∼becoming.

scholarly journals Critical Self-Reflection as Disruption: A Black Feminist Self-Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-38
Author(s):  
Benikia Kressler
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Junior Faculty ◽  
Junior Faculty Member ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
Self Study ◽  
Educators Of Color

As the PK-12 student population grows more diverse, the teaching population steadfastly continues to be white middle-class women (NCES, 2016). Critical teacher educators understand the importance of preparing pre-service teachers to become culturally responsive and sustaining (CR/S) practitioners by engaging in culturally relevant education (CRE). Critical teacher educators, particularly those of color from historically marginalized groups, can be important advocates in the struggle to strengthen the teaching candidate pool of CR/S practitioners. Building a cadre of teachers, who are poised to decolonize minds and spaces, sustains the work of many teacher educators of color. However, the acts of teaching and learning in most institutions of education are inundated with oppressive norms such as white privilege, xenophobia and anti-blackness. It is this reality in which I, a Black female junior teacher educator, attempt to disrupt normative teaching practices within a special education course. This self-study examined insight derived from a focus group as well as from my self-reflections conducted over the course of two semesters (Spring 2018 to Fall 2018). Using a qualitative methodological approach, the findings indicated tensions between my vulnerable position of being a junior faculty member and my desire to dismantle normative deficit practices through critical self-reflection.    

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