The purpose of this research was to explore the work of Dr. Asa Grant Hilliard, III (Nana Baffour Amankwatia, II) in three areas: (1) traditional African education and socialization, (2) responsibilities of African teachers, and (3) the need for inter/multicultural teacher education programs. It was also the purpose of this research to explore my African identity development and transformation as I interacted with, studied, and read works by Dr. Hilliard. Data used in the study include a selection of works by Dr. Hilliard, fieldnotes, fieldletters, original poetry and essays, and memory data (St. Pierre, 1997). Qualitative content analysis and autoethnography were combined to present an autoethnographic content analysis (ACA) of Dr. Hilliard’s work. The ACA method is unique to this study and provided a reflexive analysis of documents (Altheide, 1987) complimented by recognition of the events that contributed to my African identification. Findings from the study revealed several major themes in Dr. Hilliard’s work: (a) African socialization to challenge the MAAFA, (b) traditional African education for all children, (c) African teachers as responsible teachers, and (d) teacher education for inter/multicultural perspectives. The final product is an amalgamation of academic and literary writing, and includes poems, vignettes, and autobiographical narratives.

Despite some gains, improving secondary mathematics instruction remains an area of concern of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). Recitation, also known as lecturing, prevails as the practice of choice of mathematics teachers in the United States. However, the report of the NCTM Research Advisory Committee 2000 indicates that the mathematical proficiency of students increases when the practice of choice includes more than recitation. Therefore, changes in instruction in the mathematics classroom should occur to improve student learning. The purpose of this dissertation is to provide a personalized account of one mathematics teacher’s use of reflective teaching as an agent of change. This dissertation is about a journey of change in instruction fostered by a change of identity as a mathematics teacher. This dissertation chronicles the identity construction of the teacher. This study has relevance because the process utilized by the teacher provides a method of self-examination and identity construction for other mathematics classroom teachers who want to improve their practices. This study also has relevance because it describes the process of how a classroom teacher takes ownership of self-improvement. This qualitative dissertation uses autoethnography as the methodology. Autoethnography is research, writing and story where the researcher is the subject and the researcher’s experiences are the data (Ellis and Bochner 2000). The theoretical frame for this autoethnography is identity theory as it relates to teacher identity construction. Memory, videotaped lessons, student commentary and a reflective journal serve as supporting data sources to render narratives detailing the findings. The research question guiding this dissertation is: In what ways does a teacher’s reflection on mathematics practice facilitate teacher identity construction and change of practice? The findings show that a teacher’s identity can be interwoven by many characteristics that at times work simultaneously. The findings also indicate that changing one’s practices is an arduous process but can be accomplished and the process given “voice.”

This is an autoethnographic account of my 1000km journey across The Camino Via de la Plata, framed within transpersonal theory. From my personal account of a peak experience on The Way, this spiritual inquiry attempts to connect myself and the reader to insights into transformation and living through embodied writing while contributing to the exploration of personal flourishing and growth in leisure studies. This process involved moving into and through Romanyshyn’s (2007) six orphic moments found in re-search processes with soul in mind. I then unfold my journey along the Camino and deepen this inquiry by engaging literature that help to explore spiritual aspects of my journey on the Camino. Leisure inquiry frames this transpersonal peak experience in a number of ways: it is an act of empowerment (Arai, 1997), focal practice (Arai & Pedlar, 2000), resistance (Shaw, 2001, 2007), and an experience of liminality (Cody, 2012) with transformation occurring at the flux of it all.

Environmentally-concerned parents and educators today are asking, “How do we co-create learning environments that will foster environmental citizenry?” This reflects David Orr's claim: “More of the same kind of education that enabled us to industrialize the earth can only make things worse.” Using autoethnography to explore my decision to deschool my children, I'm placed in the position of a reflexive practitioner, as I serve as both the primary researcher and subject of that research. Upon arriving at the decision to forgo the compulsory education system I discovered the interconnectedness between deschooling, autoethnography, and 21st century theories of environmental education. I examine the rationales of environmental educators such as Orr, Weston and Jickling who call for new systems of environmental education. I expose underlying assumptions and beliefs that shape my decisions to deschool my daughters and create context for broader community discussion about how to educate for an environmentally engaged citizenry.

The purpose of my research is to contribute to the de/reconstruction of knowledge about the Black educational experience in Canada. Using post-positivist paradigms, critical Black feminist standpoint theory and auto-ethnographic qualitative methods of inquiry, I provide an insider perspective on being Black and female in the Canadian educational system, from primary and secondary experiences through the journey of claiming a higher education. My self-study explores the social and cultural forces that have impacted my life, highlights systemic racism throughout the journey, identifies themes in the educational experiences of Black students and Black women, uncovers contradictions between the dominant discourse and my reality, and incites reflection and action on the implications for teaching, research and educational policy. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2010-04-26 11:11:29.496

The purpose of this thesis is to generate new ways of understanding and imagining what it means to educate for and from a critical consciousness (Freire, 1974). My research is focused on my experience of trying to put critical pedagogy theory into practice in the context of teaching a grade 11/12 high school class. In contrast to oppressive pedagogies that functioned to “prepare students for dominant or subordinate positions in the existing society” (McLaren, 1994, p. 191), as a critical pedagogue, I was guided by the goal of liberating the students in my class by raising their consciousness. However, when I attempted to put critical pedagogy into practice, I soon found myself reproducing an oppressive, transmission-style pedagogy. If the goal of critical pedagogy was to emancipate students by providing them with a transformative educational experience, why did I continue to view myself and my students in ways that were oppressive and paternalistic? Critiques of critical pedagogy (Ellsworth, 1989; Gore, 1993) offer important insight into this question. Yet, a limited amount of research had been performed into how dominant cultural myths about teaching (Britzman, 1986, 2003) inform teachers’ desires and efforts to put critical pedagogy theory into practice. My thesis aims to shed light on the relationship between critical pedagogy and cultural myths about teaching by examining the discursive roots and mythologies reflected in my desire to “make a difference” in the lives of my students with critical pedagogy. In exposing how pedagogy, desire, and identity intersect in complex, creative, and contradictory ways, my research makes visible one of the most difficult lessons that teachers who wish to educate for and from a critical consciousness have to learn: “That the sincerity of their intentions does not guarantee the purity of their practice” (Brookfield, p. 1). / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2011-04-27 23:32:14.497

This qualitative study is based on the narratives of two families who each parent a young disabled child. It focuses on the children’s and families’ experiences of inclusion and exclusion within educational settings and the implications of these experiences for pedagogical change. New Zealand’s policy and curriculum contexts are considered in relation to education, disability and inclusion. I examine how the families’ perspectives and experiences interact with dominant, deficit discourses of disability. In my interpretation of the family narratives I identify particular disciplinary mechanisms that operate as tools and tactics of disabling power-knowledge production (Foucault, 1977, 1980). I argue that the policing of disabled children and families’ participation are primary processes and outcomes of these disciplinary mechanisms. The study uses a Disability Studies in Education (DSE) framework to understand and approach disability as socially, politically and culturally constructed. The assumptions underlying traditional Western educational knowledge and norms are critiqued from a counter-narrative based on experiences of disability. I use DSE research and literature to challenge knowledge regimes that interpret disability as an individual deficit requiring ‘special’ intervention and treatment. I argue that a ‘disability critique’ makes an important contribution to understanding the workings and effects of Western, Eurocentric knowledge traditions on children and families. This research further argues that exclusion is experienced by those within and outside of the dominant culture. I envisage the main research audience of this thesis to be early childhood and primary school teachers, teacher educators, early intervention and special education personnel, therapists and medical professionals. The stories and experiences of the families in this research may support teachers and other professionals to critically reflect on, and make changes to their thinking and practices. I hope to contribute to the growing body of research that can be used to support parents and families of disabled children in their efforts to promote educational change and to support the full inclusion of their children as valued people and learners within their educational contexts. I develop two main arguments in this research. The first is that in order to transform education, deficit discourses and their effects must be named and understood. The second is that New Zealand educationalists can build on existing, local frameworks to develop critical, narrative and relational pedagogies to transform exclusionary power relations and support inclusive experiences for all children and their families. I argue that approaches to disability and education based on a belief that exclusion is ‘inevitable’ and that creating a fully inclusive education system and society is an impossible dream, should be challenged and rejected. A lack of optimism and vision reproduces exclusion, and leads to weak reforms at best. Disabled children and their families deserve and have a right to an inclusive life and education and this requires people at all levels of society to take responsibility.

In a series of performative and narrative pieces, readers of this autoethnographic text are invited into the story of a young girl experiencing grief and loss, as expressed through her journals, poetry, and letters, and their corresponding events, written between the ages of 11-18 years. From present day, back through time, and forward again, encircled with clinical practice accounts, an alternative perspective of younger people’s experience of grief and loss is taken up, emphasizing one young girl’s construction of a life after her father’s sudden death.

This qualitative study advances the possibility for pre-service teachers’ transformational change in the ways that they consider teaching, learning and the culture of schooling via autoethnographic exploration. I interviewed 5 participants who chose autoethnographic inquiry to fulfill a seminar course in their Post Degree Professional Program at the University of Victoria. Using post structural methodology and arts-based representation, I introduce the palimpsest, a multi-layered and overwritten text, as a metaphor to express the complex, layered and constantly changing process of becoming (a teacher). A thematic analysis of the data revealed several phases/layers of the autoethnographic process experienced by the participants including: re-embodiment; hermeneutic phenomenology; and healing and transformation. Through these phases/layers, the participants questioned the institution within which they are ‘becoming’, informing and transforming the patterns they themselves assume. The aim of this study is to provide in-depth description of autoethnography that demonstrates its potential to illuminate discursive patterns dominant in the culture of schooling.

This M.A. thesis is an autoethnographic study of my personal experiences teaching Grade Two after ten years of teaching middle school. It takes place over a five year span from 2007 to 2012. It is presented as a series of fictional, performative, and narrative pieces, where the reader is invited along on my journey to discover who I am (becoming) as Teacher, and the (re)invention of myself as Teacher. The study takes a creative, arts- based approach, presented as a curriculum lab book that is formatted differently than a traditional thesis. On the right side of each page is a novelette comprised of narratives, stories, dialogue, and poems; on the left side of the page are literature links and implications, definitions, reflections, and recursive segments. Areas that are highlighted in this thesis include living in the hybridity of culture, dwelling in the spaces of planned and lived curriculum, and the pedagogy of reinvention. The focus of this research story is reflection and practice, ways to approach change in our pedagogy, and to demonstrate autoethnography as a methodology for the exploration of Teacher identity. / Graduate