This thesis reflects the voices of 9 to 10 year-old primary school children in Iran and England. The findings were collected from 81 Iranian pupils within five single-sex primary classrooms and 41 English pupils in two primary classrooms. The study is mainly focused on Iranian pupils and their views. However, since all the terms used in this study originated within the Western education system, it was prudent to undertake the study in England too. It aimed to deepen understanding of the concepts as well as to have a better reflection on my findings in Iran. In order to listen to the voices of pupils, two methods of data collection were applied: participant observation and individual semi-structured interviews. As a participant observer, I facilitated six hours of workshops with each classroom adopting the community of enquiry as my pedagogical method. The selected stories of ‘One Thousand and One Nights’ were used as a ‘springboard or trigger’ to facilitate the classroom inquiry. The findings suggest that the stories of ‘One Thousand and One Nights’ may enable children’s voice in four ways. First, stories engaged children in discussion on topical issues that matter to them. Second, they open up space for imaginative journeys and help children to ‘go visiting’ different views of story characters. Third, these stories contain astonishment which may foster children’s imagination. Finally, they nurture moral reasoning by picturing moral dilemmas. The findings also revealed that building of a reciprocal relationship between teacher/pupils and pupils/pupils is required when giving voice. In addition to this, it was recommended to transform a classroom into a shared space where all the children can be seen and heard.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:641004 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Partovi, Monireh |
| Publisher | University of Warwick |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/66958/ |
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