In this dissertation I engage in life writing and literary métissage (Chambers, Hasebe-Ludt, Leggo, & Sinner, 2012; Hasebe-Ludt, Chambers, & Leggo, 2009) to explore and exemplify mindful, aesthetic, and compassionate practices for working through moments of crisis (Kumashiro, 2010) in teaching and learning. The dissertation is designed as a four-strand braid and organized around the active verb “practising” to dig deep into the dynamic, and often difficult, processes of teaching and learning: (1) Practising Vulnerability; (2) Practising Discomfort; (3) Practising Mindfulness; and (4) Practising Compassion. Each strand is composed of different genres of life writing: theoretical and analytical introductions, letter writing, journal pieces, comics, photos, poetry, creative non-fiction, collages, scenes from a play, and an alphabet book. The multimodal life writing pieces are worked examples (Gee, 2010) of contemplative practices and pedagogical praxis. Life writing offers concrete ways to practise mindfulness, reflection, and reflexivity, which, in turn, invite a more awakened, critical, and compassionate stance as an educator. If teachers want to move beyond simply promoting the importance of reflective practice, wellbeing, self-actualization, and compassion to their students then we need to show more teachers (and teacher educators) the messy process of doing so themselves. Reading life writing is a starting point for teachers at all stages in their careers to imagine how they could, or already do, engage in similar processes and invite them to cultivate compassion and self-compassion as a grounding stance for their life projects as teachers, learners, and human beings. My autoethnographic teacher inquiry (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009) was prompted when I encountered “troubling” (Kumashiro, 2009) tensions when first teaching about homophobia and transphobia to teacher education students at a faculty of education on the Canadian prairies. I began to explore the vulnerability and discomfort of this teaching moment from an experimental (Davies, 2011), multimodal (Kress & Street, 2006; Pahl & Roswell, 2006), critical literacy stance (Janks, 2010; Vasquez, Tate, & Harste, 2013). My inquiry shifted after a diagnosis of breast cancer, which became an opportunity for me to awaken to more mindful, empathetic, and compassionate ways of being, living, teaching, and researching. / February 2017

Student Number: 0306365F Masters in Education School of Education / An attempt to improve the quality of education in Botswana included an emphasis on alternative forms of assessment. This attempt however, has produced inconclusive results and the censure has often been on technical issues such as; lack of resources and overlooking the teachers’ understanding of the proposed innovation. A naturalistic research approach was undertaken by this study to investigate whether or not teachers at junior secondary schools in Botswana were using formative assessment when teaching mathematics as advocated in the RNPE. By employing the notion of currere, the study subjected three purposively sampled mathematics teachers drawn from three purposively sampled public junior secondary schools to an autobiographical process to reflect on their practices. The research methods comprised classroom observations and interviews. In the light of Bernstein’s theory of pedagogic device, data was analyzed and interpreted. The findings of this study indicated that mathematics teachers’ assessment strategies are still traditional. Their practices are influenced by many factors more especially by the need to make sure that students do well in the public examinations. Their understanding of these factors determines their receptivity to the proposed change. These teachers need to put themselves on the spot, and question their taken-for-granted aspects of their work. Only this way, would they become aware of alternative cause of action they need to take and can regard themselves as “critical public intellectuals.”

I am a non-Aboriginal teacher from the South, living and teaching in the Canadian North, traditional home to Aboriginal people for thousands of years. The Aboriginal people of the North have come to know the land deeply, their knowing rooted in an intimate understanding of and respect for the natural world. Coming to this land as a foreigner, I believe it is incumbent upon me to live and interact in the community in a way that respects the culture and way of life of the community. In this inquiry, I explore what it is to live respectfully, by relating to place and community from a position of unknowing, locating myself moment to moment as I am involved and implicated teaching and living within the flow of the community and the rhythms of the land. Specifically, I explore what it is to be connected and entangled, yet have no permanent roots. For this purpose, I draw on my experiences teaching and living in a number of northern locations throughout the taiga sub-arctic biome and represent experiences and understanding through mixed genre and multimedia such as poetry, descriptions, stories, photos and journal entries. The aim of my inquiry is to bring forth and theorize my emergent understanding of my self-in-relation to the curricular lifeworld of the school and community in the place where I teach.

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This paper examines the curricular intersection of social studies teacher education with Pinar’s (2012) seminal currere process. Woven together in an undergraduate elementary methods course, currere inquiry served as a beginning, yet cogent lens to explore the nature of students’ social studies lived experiences, to interrogate normative and conventional views of teaching elementary social studies, and to begin to understand and challenge hegemonic narratives in the social studies curriculum and alternatively promote classroom experiences that are culturally responsive (Gay, 2002; Banks, 2007).

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