Authority to Imagine

The Editors: Noreen B. Garman is Professor of Education in the Administrative and Policy Studies Department at the University of Pittsburgh where she coordinates the Social and Comparative Analysis in Education Program. Her specializations include curriculum studies, instructional supervision, and qualitative/interpretive research. She is a Fulbright Scholar who has published numerous articles in professional journals and is the co-author of The Qualitative Dissertation: A Guide for Students and Faculty (1999).Maria Piantanida has adjunct appointments in education at Carlow University in Pennsylvania and the University of Pittsburgh. She teaches introductory courses on qualitative research, co-facilitates a dissertation study group, and participates in several special interests groups dealing with qualitative research, including the Center for Interpretive and Qualitative Research at Duquesne University. Dr. Piantanida has served on a number of dissertation committees, conducted numerous workshops, and given presentations on the dissertation process at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. She and her colleague, Noreen B. Garman, co-authored The Qualitative Dissertation: A Guide for Students and Faculty (1999).

«The scholarly and practical imagination is likely the most valuable tool of educational researchers, and of educators generally. Garman, Piantanida, and colleagues offer ideas, inspiration, courage, and illustrations for aspiring educational researchers to write innovative, interpretive representations of educational experience. We need more dissertations that explore diverse ways of knowing and modes of expressing insights about education. I commend the authors of this book for showing how to do just that.» (William H. Schubert, Professor of Education and Chair of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Illinois at Chicago)«Researchers seeking to gain expertise in this narrative interpretative approach may find, in reading these joyful accounts of collaborative search, discovery, and creation, an encouraging – even empowering – invitation to address their own research questions with similar concerns and energy, and, in turn, craft their own individual text in dialogue with critical readers on the way. This is an elegant and literary gold mine of narrative information for educational researchers, faculty, and students seeking real engagement with interpretative hermeneutic approaches to educational research.» (Peter Willis, Senior Lecturer, Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences, School of Education, University of South Australia)

• Contents: Janet L. Miller: Foreword. A Reaching Out for Meanings – Maria Piantanida/Noreen B. Garman: Preface – Noreen B. Garman: Imagining an Interpretive Dissertation: Voice, Text, and Representation – Lynn Altman Richards: Pictures in My Mind: Viewing Images of Dissertation Authorities through Process Drama and Narrative Inquiry �� Micheline Stabile: Problematizing Educational Inclusion through Heuristic Inquiry – JoVictoria Nicholson-Goodman: Confronting Authority and Self: Social Cartography and Curriculum Theorizing for Uncertain Times – Pamela Krakowski: A Search for Balance: Representing a Narrative Pedagogy – Robin E. Grubs: Reimagining Grounded Theory: Moving toward an Interpretive Stance – Marilyn Llewellyn: Embracing a Language of Spiritual Inquiry – Kathleen M. Ceroni: Coming to Know through the Text of Talk: From Interviews to Inner Views Storied to Interpretation – Wendy M. Milne: Imagining Reflective Artmaking: Claiming Self as Artist-Teacher-Researcher – Cynthia A. Tananis: Imagining in the Forest Dark: The Jouney of an Epistemorph in the Land of Ologies – Marjorie Barrett Logsdon: Writing Essays: Minding the Personal and Theoretic – Maria Piantanida: Speculations on the Personal Essay as a Mode of Curriculum Inquiry – Patricia L. McMahon: Narrative Yearnings: Reflecting in Time through the Art of Fictive Story – Maria Piantanida/Noreen B. Garman: Afterword: Envisioning Complicated Conversation at the Table.