It gets inside you : mining, a metaphor for teaching : a narrative inquiry project
Date
2004
Authors
Prentice, E. Lori
University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Education
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Education, 2004
Abstract
This project is an endeavour into Narrative Inquiry as a form of educational
research. In attempts to explain how and why I have become the teacher that I am I have
compiled significant parts of my life history to explain the relationship between a life
spent mining and one spent teaching. It is my assumption that I have become who I am as
a teacher because of the life that I have led living, working and learning in three mining
communities of Canada. My work as an educator, building community in my school
setting, is a direct reflection of my life's experiences.
I began with the premise that long before I was born my roots were established in
mining through my grandparents and parents. The life they set for me was one of
community. My own childhood, adolescence and adulthood have been shaped
extensively by the towns in which I lived. Those influences enter my classroom and play
a role in shaping my curriculum.
The work is phenomenological in nature, narrative in style and from the
perspective of the research subject. This multi-genre work utilizes poetry, narrative and
exposition to present my life story. In writing through my life it became apparent that the
communities I lived in not only shaped my character but also created in me the desire to
replicate or create similar community in my classrooms. This is evident far more in
"how" I teach than "what" I teach.
Description
vi, 105 leaves ; 29 cm. --
Keywords
Education -- Research -- Methodology , Narration (Rhetoric) , Storytelling