Teaching is a complex, dynamic activity that involves the whole person of the teacher and this narrative auto-ethnography is an interpretation of my personal explorations of past memories of experiences in education from childhood to retirement. I explore and examine the threads emerging from my recollections and reflect on how they have contributed towards a system of beliefs and values I brought into the classroom. Linking the strands, I have sought to construct and re-construct the meanings attributed to my personal development and growth of myself, my self-concept, identities, self awareness and ultimately my own self-understanding. Whilst researching this theme I noted the relative absence of teachers' own accounts of their attempts to explore issues connected with self-understanding and as I slowly pieced together the picture of who I am now and was as a teacher, I recognised the significance of deep self-understanding and its' vital contribution towards effective engagement in the complex activity of teaching. I lived alongside this self study for a long time and worked with a group of young adolescents from my school in an urban Welsh environment over a period of three years. The conversations that took place created a more thorough understanding of their perspectives on learning and resonated with the adolescent I once was. Teaching requires connections and relationships with pupils, parents, communities and the world around us and involves more than just skills and knowledge. It is challenging but also rewarding and I have sought to portray my experiential interpretations within text and imagery in order to open up and create new conversations and thoughts for the readers of this narrative.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:559716 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Brown, Wendy |
| Publisher | University of Bristol |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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