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This dissertation is an ethnography about the men and women who take up the practice and performance of a Hindustani (North Indian) drum called tabla, as a way of life. Learning tabla means that percussionists must find a guru, a learned master of the tradition who will guide them in their life long study of this instrument. The relationships formed between gurus and disciples are distinctively different in kind from teacher-student relations in Western knowledge systems. The guru-disciple tradition is a very specific, culturally dependent mode of learning originating from the Indian Brahmanical tradition of religious study. Discipleship is a form of apprenticeship which offers no easy translation, philosophically, culturally or spiritually. My ethnography and analysis of tabla as a way of life is presented from my own situated perspective as a tabla disciple of two tabla masters, Ustad Alia Rakha Khan, his son Ustad Zakir Hussain and as a visiting tabla enthusiast with another teacher of tabla, Ritesh Das. I offer a multi-local ethnography which centres on tabla communities based in Bombay, India, Toronto, Ontario, Vancouver, British Columbia, Seattle, Washington and the Bay Area of California. As tabla travels around the globe, outside of India, the learning and teaching of this tradition changes somewhat in its new environments. However, learning to play tabla whether in Indian or diaspora cultures necessitates adopting Indian ways of knowing, learning and being. For those musicians of non-Indian ethnicity who become dedicated to this art form learning tabla also means learning to embody Indian cultural ways of doing and knowing. I posit that learning the cultural, as in learning tabla, begins in the body and the embodied mind. Knowing through and with the body requires re-conceptualizing anthropological concepts of culture, memory and tradition. Grounding an analytic concept of the body in the emerging critical Anthropology of the Body and the Anthropology of the Senses allows for an examination of the social as something more than cognitive and language based.

The title of this thesis is: Connection: A Hermeneutical Inquiry of an Autobiographical Text. It is based on the following thesis question: What is the significance of connecting with another in teaching? The following quote set the stage for the writing: "All places have names and stories, and wisdom sits in (those) places" (Chambers, 2003,p.233). Hermeneutics -- the art of interpretation -- is used to inform an autobiographical fragment. This autobiographical fragment is a fictional rendering of two days of teaching told in a narrative format. the thesis is designed around Gadamer's text Truth and Method. Gadamer's work is supplemented with the work of Martin Heidegger, F.D.E. Schleiermacher, Georg Hegel, as well as modern curriculum scholars such as Cynthia Chambers, David Smith, David Jardine and Max Van Manen. The writing begins with a methodology which grounds the writing, and then is developed through three voices in the form of a literature review, a narrative fragment, and text interpretation. The literature review is guided by questions such as Why use autobiographical narrative? What is the site of the inquiry? and Is narrative still relevant in a postmodern world? Time is also spent on the questions: Who were the great hermeneutical thinkers? and Who speaks for hermeneutics now? After the literature review, a narrative fragment is given. In the last third of the thesis, the narrative is deconstructed using Truth and Method and curriculum scholarship articles to structure the reflections. The "voice" shifts between the three sections. In the first third of the thesis the voice is intended to be academic. The voice in the narrative is personal. The third voice is interpretive and plays back and forth between academic reference and personal reflection. The major themes evolved as the writing progressed. The theme of authoritarianism as antithetical to connection was explored. Alienation acted as a foil to connection. There is an analysis of connection in the context of proper conversation, which includes guidelines for mutual respect and codes of moral conduct. The thesis provides a commentary on the power of hermeneutics to inform the teaching process. It then concludes with a series of questions pertaining to the significance of hermeneutical exploration in teacher preparation and classroom teaching. / viii, 127 leaves ; 29 cm.

What is conversation and how is it related to pedagogic relations? Conversations: Hermeneutic Inquiry Unearthing Pedagogic Relations utilizes Hans-Georg Gadamger's notion of conversation as "the art of seeing things in the unity of an aspect" (Gadamer, 2004, p.368). This definition for conversation is a model for the pedagogic relation where the teacher and student experience education together, side-by-side. This thesis explores the themes of pedagogy, vulnerability and living or Being in the context of teaching. Hermeneutic inquiry -a mode, or art of interpretation-is utilized to inquire into one teacher's experience with students to unearth a deeper understanding of the pedagogic relation. The hermeneutic questions that have informed the inquiry are: 1)What is the nature of the pedagogic relation? 2)What is the nature of the teacher-student relationship? 3)What is the significance of vulnerability in teaching? 4)What is the effect of society on the pedagogic relation? Textual fragments or narrative reconstructions of conversations with students and parents are the site of the study. The study itself employs Gadamer's Truth and Method as a tool of inquiry and also explores the writings on pedagogy of David Smith, David Jardine and Max van Manen. This thesis addresses the nature of a teacher being with another, namely the student and how the teacher must have a measure of self-understanding to nurture the pedagogic relation. The teacher who engages in conversation with his/her students will undoubtedly experience a measure of vulnerability as a direct result of the relationship. The thesis concludes with writing about how hermeneutics is a mode of self-understanding and change. / viii, 129 leaves ; 28 cm.

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The push for educational reform in the province of Quebec, Canada has brought to the foreground many ideas about what needs to be done to improve the learning experience of students. While there has been some movement in the primary grade levels, change in the secondary level is still in its infancy. There are some teachers, however, in high schools who have been on the cutting edge of educational reform. The purpose of this study is to look at participation within a secondary classroom where the philosophy of the reform is being acted upon. The study, qualitative in design, is a type of ethnographic investigation of a teacher and students in a Grade VII language arts classroom. The classroom is a part of an exclusive program, namely the Alternative Learning Program, nested in a public high school in the Montreal area. / Using various means of data collection such as field notes and interviews, the researcher examines the various dimensions of participation as it unfolds in this particular classroom. The researcher identifies these dimensions as assigned and shared participation. The data suggests that dynamics beyond assigned and shared participation are also evident. The dynamics, identified as participative tone, contribute to student views of the uniqueness of this particular learning environment. To present a trustworthy description of what is observed, however, the investigator shows situations in which participation is not apparent. These situations are identified as participative resistance. The researcher deduces that participation and participative resistance need to be viewed as context-bound and are, in many respects, points on a continuum. / Attempts have been made in the research to allow the study participants to express their views. Through interviews, students share in their own words what participation means to them. Their words add depth to understanding of what student participation is. The study suggests that notions of the child-centered or student-centered classroom, while commendable, are not necessarily an aspiration to strive for. / The study affirms that the teacher plays a key position in the classroom environment. The study begins by showing the various roles that the teacher assumes in her daily practice. Views of the teacher are presented along with perceptions of the students and the researcher to determine the various roles played out in this site. The study concludes that the teacher conducts her practice by exceeding the boundaries of her roles so identified. / The study shows that the classroom does not stand in isolation, but is subject to various influences from the school, as well as the community at large. The researcher identifies these influences as context and conditions using another site as a point of reference. The secondary sight brings clarity to what the researcher observes. The researcher concludes that in addition to communal influences, learning in the primary site takes place under the banner of what is defined as an arts-oriented curriculum. The arts-oriented curriculum contributes to the sense of community in the classroom. But data also suggest that the classroom does not always function as a community. In spite of the teacher's good intentions, tensions sometimes foster a competitive rather than collaborative spirit among the students.

This study examines why teachers sometimes struggle to develop caring relationships with their students, despite their intention to do so. To do this, the notion of caring relationships (Mayeroff, 1971) is explored, as well as the influence of teachers’ emotions on these dynamics. The study also examines environmental factors in schools that influence caring teacher-student relationships. In all, fourteen teachers with early, middle, and senior years experience participated in two focus-groups each, and seven of these participants were interviewed individually. Because this study adopts a grounded theory approach, the coding of data is foundational to the data analysis. More specifically, open (Charmaz, 2006; Glaser, 1978), focused (Charmaz, 2006), and selective coding (Glaser, 1978) are used to identify the emergent categories in the data, and how they interrelate with each other. Theoretical coding (Charmaz, 2006; Glaser, 1978) is used to link emergent categories to extant literature to further develop the study’s conceptualization. The findings suggest that teachers’ emotions and more specifically, fear, guilt, and shame, reflect the dissonance that they sometimes experience as they align their idealized views of themselves with their roles in their teaching (McCall & Simmons, 1978). Building on earlier work by Beijaard (1995) and Nias (1989, 1996), this study’s findings suggest that teachers rely primarily on their students to gauge their success in their role and their identities as teachers. Also, teachers’ competitive relationships with their colleagues often reflect their unintentional attempts to protect their relationships with students from the influences of other adults, so as to safeguard their students as their primary source of role support. This not only raises questions about the caring nature of teachers’ relationships with their students (Mayeroff, 1971), but it also underscores the fact that teachers’ collaboration in schools is frequently superficial in quality. This study also suggests that teachers tend to isolate themselves in their classrooms and have little awareness of how their responses to their emotions in teaching influence their caring relationships with students. Finally, the findings indicate that school administrators can act as important role support for teachers as they develop caring relationships with their students.

This thesis is an autoethnographic investigation of interactions I have had with my students as a first-year art educator and the ways in which these interactions have led me to recall memories of my own experience as a student in art. Employing a metaphor of "teaching as mutual mark making," I present these interactions as "sketches," which refer to and reflect the ongoing and unfinished nature of memory and experience. My exploration of memory as it relates to teaching and learning has led me to advocate for art education based on relationships between teacher and student, as well as the relationship between the educator and his or her own learning experiences.

One purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the self-actualization of certain selected teachers and their concern for their students as perceived by the students. A second purpose was to examine the relationship of age and years of teaching experience of the teachers and their levels of self-actualization. A third purpose was to determine whether the teachers being studied differed significantly in their self-actualizing levels from other adult groups.The subjects in the study were fifty-six volunteer teachers of grades three through six from one school district in central Indiana. The intact classes of the participating teachers comprised the student sample of 1,234 grades three through six from one school district in central Indiana.For the purpose of measuring self-actualization of teachers the Personal Orientation Inventory (POI), consisting of two major scales, Time Competence and Inner Direction, and ten sub-scales, was selected. Only the major scales were used in this study.Student perception of teacher concern was measured by the Student Estimate of Teacher Concern (SETC), Form B. This instrument consists of twenty-eight items designed to measure three major components of concern: recognition of need, understanding of need, and help given to the student.Teachers completed the POI in the Spring, 1975, and their classes were administered the SETC in January, 1976. The SETC was administered orally by the investigator as students recorded their answers. Data about age and years of teaching experience of the teachers were obtained from the teachers themselves.Analyses of the data were carried out by three correlational statistical procedures: multiple regression, canonical correlation, and multivariate analysis of variance, using the Hotelling T2 statistic.According to the levels set for determining concerned teachers in the study, all the teachers were perceived as concerned by their students except one. Out of fifty-six teachers studied, twenty-one met the criteria set for self-actualized teachers, having Time Competence raw scores above 18 and Inner Direction raw scores above 87, and having standard scores above 50. Thirty-five teachers had scores below these criteria, yet all except one received scores on the SETC above 15 in raw scores and above 50 on the standard score. No significant relationship was found between levels of self-actualization of the teachers in this study and their students' perception of their concern. These results indicate that it is not appropriate to use teachers' levels of self-actualization to predict student perception of teacher concern in this study.Approximately 37 ½ % of the teachers were self-actualizing, according to the levels set in this study. Some of the youngest people in this study were the most highly actualized, as measured by the POI, and some of the oldest teachers in this study were the least actualized. No significant relationship was found between the age and years of teaching experience of the teachers in this study and their levels of self-actualization. These results indicate that age and years of teaching experience should not be used to predict the self-actualizing levels of the teachers in this study. An older teacher may not be assumed to be more highly actualized merely because of age. Neither may a younger teacher be presumed to be low in self-actualization. It appears to this writer that other factors not measured in this study are in operation.According to this study, the profession of teaching did not make any significant difference in the self-actualization levels of the teachers, as determined by the POI. There is no reason to suppose that these teachers are different from any other adults in their self-actualization, as measured by the POI. No significant difference was found between the teachers in this study and the adults in the norming population of the POI. These results show that the teachers in this study are typical adults, and that the altruistic nature of their profession does not notably affect their self-actualization, as measured in this study. Self-actualization, according to this study, does not exist more among teachers than in other adult groups.According to the findings of this study, the SETC measure failed to discriminate among teachers on the construct of teacher concern. Sex of teachers and age and sex of students may have been factors, since the SETC was previously used primarily by female junior and senior high school students to rate female home economics teachers. This study was the first to use the SETC with students in elementary school.Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that self-actualization of teachers be further studied with relationship to the age of the teachers, using larger samples than in the present study. It is further recommended that the construct of self-actualization or psychological health be considered an important criterion of future selection of prospective teachers. A third recommendation is that evaluations of teachers be based on peer evaluation, student evaluation, self-evaluation, and administrative evaluation.