Research in Life Writing and Education – serie

Educational Embodiments: Life Writing the Body focuses on life writing that centers body politics and embodiment in educational spaces. The aim of the book is to consider, examine, and voice the lived, fleshy, textured body as a site of politics, a site of embodied educative experiences, and a site of learning and teaching. Researchers and educators alike have long championed the disembodied researcher and teacher as the ideal collectors and vehicles for knowledge production and emphasized the intellect over the body in pedagogies, analyses, and fieldwork. We are always enfleshed in diverse ways in various locales, always changing, moving, becoming, aging, singing, aching, growing, becoming marred and scarred and stronger and bigger, and smaller again. We are embodied with others, interacting with other body-mind-souls that awaken interrelational proxemics and kinesthetic experiences. Educational Embodiments offers perspectives from which scholars, teachers, and students can draw to support their work. The 14 chapters in this collection attend to national, international, and local concerns, include varied theoretical and methodological approaches, and reflect a range of class, ethnic, and racial heritages. Chapters consider practical, theoretical, ethical, and educational issues. The authors include established and emerging scholars. The book sparks conversation, debate, and reflection and is a valuable resource that inspires scholarship about how embodied intersections shape the life-writing inquiry process.

Educational Embodiments: Life Writing the Body focuses on life writing that centers body politics and embodiment in educational spaces. The aim of the book is to consider, examine, and voice the lived, fleshy, textured body as a site of politics, a site of embodied educative experiences, and a site of learning and teaching. Researchers and educators alike have long championed the disembodied researcher and teacher as the ideal collectors and vehicles for knowledge production and emphasized the intellect over the body in pedagogies, analyses, and fieldwork. We are always enfleshed in diverse ways in various locales, always changing, moving, becoming, aging, singing, aching, growing, becoming marred and scarred and stronger and bigger, and smaller again. We are embodied with others, interacting with other body-mind-souls that awaken interrelational proxemics and kinesthetic experiences. Educational Embodiments offers perspectives from which scholars, teachers, and students can draw to support their work. The 14 chapters in this collection attend to national, international, and local concerns, include varied theoretical and methodological approaches, and reflect a range of class, ethnic, and racial heritages. Chapters consider practical, theoretical, ethical, and educational issues. The authors include established and emerging scholars. The book sparks conversation, debate, and reflection and is a valuable resource that inspires scholarship about how embodied intersections shape the life-writing inquiry process.

Teachers matter. Stories matter, too. However, in the context of education, teachers’ stories matter even more. What happens in classrooms -in New Zealand and elsewhere - affects not only the teachers and pupils concerned but also those interested in teaching pedagogy and teaching in general. Teacher stories are a way to tell others about the personal experiences that inform educational environments. From a Dutch Colony to a New Zealand Classroom: The Teaching Story of Will Potter tells part of the personal and teaching story of one post-primary commerce teacher - Will Potter - who taught in New Zealand from 1958 until 1976. He was also Jacqui Burne’s father. Will’s story has unique features: he was an immigrant who came to teaching later in life at age 51 without a degree or teaching qualifications, English was not his first language, and he went on to write textbooks in his chosen subjects. He also began teaching in the 1950s - a time when school enrollments were increasing, but facilities and teachers were limited. The Thomas Report of 1944, with its emphasis on education of the whole pupil as well as the revised School Certificate and the introduction of new subjects, also shaped the time. Will had a colonial upbringing in what was the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, and was also interned in concentration camps during the Second World War. These experiences added to his personal history. Will passed away in 1993. Will’s story is an intrinsic case study of a rich teaching life. His story helps illustrate a teacher’s life in context revealing how aspects of the time, such as the lack of classrooms in the 1950s, affected teachers’ experiences and pedagogy. From a Dutch Colony to a New Zealand Classroom is vital reading for those interested in the history of education and the biographical and professional insights of teacher stories.

Teachers matter. Stories matter, too. However, in the context of education, teachers’ stories matter even more. What happens in classrooms -in New Zealand and elsewhere - affects not only the teachers and pupils concerned but also those interested in teaching pedagogy and teaching in general. Teacher stories are a way to tell others about the personal experiences that inform educational environments. From a Dutch Colony to a New Zealand Classroom: The Teaching Story of Will Potter tells part of the personal and teaching story of one post-primary commerce teacher - Will Potter - who taught in New Zealand from 1958 until 1976. He was also Jacqui Burne’s father. Will’s story has unique features: he was an immigrant who came to teaching later in life at age 51 without a degree or teaching qualifications, English was not his first language, and he went on to write textbooks in his chosen subjects. He also began teaching in the 1950s - a time when school enrollments were increasing, but facilities and teachers were limited. The Thomas Report of 1944, with its emphasis on education of the whole pupil as well as the revised School Certificate and the introduction of new subjects, also shaped the time. Will had a colonial upbringing in what was the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, and was also interned in concentration camps during the Second World War. These experiences added to his personal history. Will passed away in 1993. Will’s story is an intrinsic case study of a rich teaching life. His story helps illustrate a teacher’s life in context revealing how aspects of the time, such as the lack of classrooms in the 1950s, affected teachers’ experiences and pedagogy. From a Dutch Colony to a New Zealand Classroom is vital reading for those interested in the history of education and the biographical and professional insights of teacher stories.

This collection presents life writing projects that explore or represent the racial dimensions of life writing research in diverse educational spaces using diverse methodologies and inquiry approaches. We believe this collection is long overdue. To quote Melva R. Grant and Signe E. Kastberg’s succinct phrasing (this volume) “racialized inquiry matters.” While some rich texts explore the racial aspects and anti-racist potential of social science research (Blee, 2018; Lopez & Parker, 2003; Sefa Dei & Johal, 2005; Twine & Warren, 2000), and include examples from educational contexts, there are no collections which focus on the intersections of life writing inquiry as educative projects that highlight racial dimensions of the work and lives under study. Drawing from Toni Morrison’s enduring wisdom, a visionary writer whose work has explored the racial dimensions of culture and lived experience, we centralize race in life writing in this collection rather than obscuring it or leaving it as a lurking, absent presence in the craft.Racial Dimensions of Life Writing Research offers a wealth of ideas and perspectives from which scholars, teachers, and students can draw to support their work. The 14 chapters in this collection attend to national, international, and local concerns, include varied theoretical and methodological approaches, and reflect a range of ethnic and racial heritages. Chapters consider practical, theoretical, ethical, and educational issues involved in projects concerning under-represented educational actors important for the terrain of life writing. The authors include established and emerging scholars— university researchers, directors, and professors, academic advisors, graduate and undergraduate students, activists, and former elementary and secondary school teachers. It is our hope that this volume will spark conversation, debate, and reflection and will be a valuable resource that inspires scholarship about how race and its intersections shape the life-writing inquiry process.

This collection presents life writing projects that explore or represent the racial dimensions of life writing research in diverse educational spaces using diverse methodologies and inquiry approaches. We believe this collection is long overdue. To quote Melva R. Grant and Signe E. Kastberg’s succinct phrasing (this volume) “racialized inquiry matters.” While some rich texts explore the racial aspects and anti-racist potential of social science research (Blee, 2018; Lopez & Parker, 2003; Sefa Dei & Johal, 2005; Twine & Warren, 2000), and include examples from educational contexts, there are no collections which focus on the intersections of life writing inquiry as educative projects that highlight racial dimensions of the work and lives under study. Drawing from Toni Morrison’s enduring wisdom, a visionary writer whose work has explored the racial dimensions of culture and lived experience, we centralize race in life writing in this collection rather than obscuring it or leaving it as a lurking, absent presence in the craft.Racial Dimensions of Life Writing Research offers a wealth of ideas and perspectives from which scholars, teachers, and students can draw to support their work. The 14 chapters in this collection attend to national, international, and local concerns, include varied theoretical and methodological approaches, and reflect a range of ethnic and racial heritages. Chapters consider practical, theoretical, ethical, and educational issues involved in projects concerning under-represented educational actors important for the terrain of life writing. The authors include established and emerging scholars— university researchers, directors, and professors, academic advisors, graduate and undergraduate students, activists, and former elementary and secondary school teachers. It is our hope that this volume will spark conversation, debate, and reflection and will be a valuable resource that inspires scholarship about how race and its intersections shape the life-writing inquiry process.

In his interdisciplinary memoir, Gerald Gutek applies history and philosophy of education to educational biography. The author was guided by his focusing goals of exploring his path to becoming an educational biographer and working generalizations with his colleagues in the field. Gutek’s narrative begins with the author’s childhood experiences that inclined him to a career in education, followed by chapters on his doctoral program in the College of Education at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana; his teaching of history and philosophy and education in the School of Education at Loyola University Chicago; his research and writing of biographies of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and Joseph Neef and his textbook, Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Education: a Biographical Introduction; and issues and strategies in writing about Maria Montessori. Throughout the book, Gutek analyzes concepts and applications he developed as an educational biographer such as parallel biographies, slice of life writing, reconsidering overlooked and understudied educators, and the role of place and space in telling life stories.

In his interdisciplinary memoir, Gerald Gutek applies history and philosophy of education to educational biography. The author was guided by his focusing goals of exploring his path to becoming an educational biographer and working generalizations with his colleagues in the field. Gutek’s narrative begins with the author’s childhood experiences that inclined him to a career in education, followed by chapters on his doctoral program in the College of Education at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana; his teaching of history and philosophy and education in the School of Education at Loyola University Chicago; his research and writing of biographies of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and Joseph Neef and his textbook, Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Education: a Biographical Introduction; and issues and strategies in writing about Maria Montessori. Throughout the book, Gutek analyzes concepts and applications he developed as an educational biographer such as parallel biographies, slice of life writing, reconsidering overlooked and understudied educators, and the role of place and space in telling life stories.

In the United States, the dominant perception of the Middle East is that the region is defined by violence, conflict, and extremism. This narrative erases the humanity and dignity of the region’s communities and perpetuates Orientalist myths about backwardness, inferiority, and a clash of civilizations. Levantine Vignettes is the account of one history educator and his lifelong journey to appreciate the vibrancy, vitality, diversity, and dynamism of the Middle East through the embodied learning that emerges through travel and cultural immersion.Following Daniel Osborn from his first trip to Israel as an undergraduate student through his Peace Corps service in Jordan and well beyond, Levantine Vignettes demonstrates the transformative power of working with and living among communities in Israel, the Palestinian West Bank, Jordan, and Lebanon. From harvesting and planting olive trees to herding livestock in the desert, this account provides a glimpse into the process of becoming a global educator committed to crossing borders and cultivating compassion through knowledge.