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Adult learning models have emerged that help social work students to make links between their lived experiences, narratives, and their developing identity as practitioners. This educational methodology involves students exploring and co-constructing their own personal and professional narratives through dialogue, sharing them within a reflecting team format. Reflecting teams emerged out of the work of family therapist Tom Andersen, and have been further developed for practitioner education by narrative therapist, Michael White. A detailed description of the learning model is provided, with an overview of the orienting principles and some guidelines for application. / The educational practice of reflecting processes is examined through a conceptual framework drawing on the ideas of Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975) and Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934). Bakhtin was a literary theorist, philosopher, and teacher who was interested in language, literature and human consciousness, and was fascinated with dialogue in relationship as a site of knowledge construction as well as a model for understanding the dialogic nature of human consciousness. Vygotsky was a psychologist, cultural theorist, and activist who conceptualized learning as a social process that occurs in relationship. He also investigated language as a psychological/cultural tool, and was curious about human consciousness as "inner speech." Their writings act as a theoretical foundation for the dissertation, providing a series of heuristic devices or lenses through which to view reflecting processes: individual/social, self/other, outer word/inner speech, language, monologue/dialogue, and authoritarian/internally persuasive discourse. / The dissertation includes an alternative to traditional academic rhetorical style in the form of conversations between various writers. Drawing on Bakhtin and Vygotsky, a dialogical genre is developed as an approach to engaging with the texts of Andersen and White. In developing this methodology, the dialogic form of inquiry is expressed in a conversation between Bakhtin, Vygotsky and a student persona. This dialogic genre also occurs as an extended series of conversations in the format of a reflecting process between Andersen, White, Bakhtin, Vygotsky, and a student, Mishka. The dissertation concludes with an overview of Bakhtin's exploration of moving from monologue to dialogue and from authoritarian to internally persuasive discourse, and how this is accomplished by means of the "penetrated word" and transformative discourse in the context of relationship.

The process of recovery from addiction is a multifaceted process that involves the efforts of clients, professionals and the broader community. Additional challenges to recovery are present for individuals who use solvents. This study investigates how professionals, involved in the provision of services to clientele who use solvents, understand the process of healing in their collaborative work. Using a narrative methodology, semi-­‐structured interviews were conducted with professionals employed in providing recovery-based services to individuals who use volatile solvents. The stories of these professionals demonstrate how they view their clients as “just like everyone else” despite what the dominant cultural story says about their possibilities for recovery. The professionals told stories which are in extreme opposition to the story of dominant culture and involved groupings of “us” (professionals) versus “them” (others). These stories, and how they were told, are discussed in relation to hope for professionals who provide health and housing services.

This qualitative research study investigates teaching and learning in an international school, and asks: (1) What are the stories of principle, practice, and mindset that foster internationally-minded teaching and learning in an international school context?; and (2) How might those stories inform the practices of teachers in increasingly culturally diverse domestic schools? A trifold conceptual framework of principle, practice, and mindset (Guo & Jamal, 2007) was used to design the process for data collection: (1) document analysis to examine principles such as intercultural competency; (2) classroom observations to identify elements of internationally-minded teaching practices; and (3) interviews to address the mindset of educators and administrators. The data collected from 25 documents, 60 hours of classroom observations, and 8 interviews were subsequently analyzed using van Manen’s (1997) three steps for hermeneutic phenomenological reflection, and were guided by Fowler’s (2006) approach to understanding narrative. Four resulting themes have been established: (1) personalized learning; (2) creative professionalism; (3) (con)temporary community; and (4) international-mindedness. These themes indicate a complex interconnectedness between stories of principle, practice, and mindset in an international school context, and highlight the significant role that teachers as intercontextual inquirers play in enhancing internationally-minded approaches to teaching and learning. / Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2014-02-03 13:09:11.145