Study, Stance, and Stamina in the Research on Teachers' Lives: A Rejoinder to Robert V. Bullough, Jr.

Autor/in	Kelchtermans, Geert
Titel	Study, Stance, and Stamina in the Research on Teachers' Lives: A Rejoinder to Robert V. Bullough, Jr.
Quelle	In: Teacher Education Quarterly, 35 (2008) 4, S.27-36 (10 Seiten) PDF als Volltext (1); PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei (2) Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0737-5328
Schlagwörter	Stellungnahme; Personal Narratives; Autobiographies; Teacher Characteristics; Educational Research; Criticism + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Erlebniserzählung; Autobiography; Autobiografie; Autobiographie; Bildungsforschung; Pädagogische Forschung; Kritik
Abstract	Robert V. Bullough, Jr.'s article demonstrated in an impressive way how autobiographical accounts, as well as single person narratives, are intertwined with much larger issues in society, international politics, and economical interests, as well as consequences for people in general and educators in particular. The way he proves capable of listening to and re-telling the stories his wife Dawn Ann brings from her practice as a teacher, shows how the particular encompasses and reveals the universal, how in the single case the complexity of more general processes and patterns is manifested. The author says, it is still the neo-Marxist critical and analytical inspiration, but overcoming its structuralist limitations by opening up for the dynamics of human agency. It is a very nice example of a tribute to the dedication and expertise of a particular teacher, as well as a powerful demonstration of the revealing power of narratives for deepening, understanding, and encouraging informed action in teaching. The same applies to Bullough's thoughts about the policy environment of performativity and how that affects teachers' work and identity, as well as their partners' view. This to the author is one of the strongest points Bullough's lecture makes, one that is--unfortunately--often missing from narrative research, where the stories are supposed to stand on their own, without the critical analysis that looks for meaning, understanding, and relevance beyond the story per se. Here, the author recalls Ivor Goodson's claim from about two and a half decades ago that research on "life stories" should be embedded in "life histories" (Goodson, 1984). If not, researchers really run the risk that the call for making the teachers' voice heard through collecting their stories, in fact results in just another tool for domestication, de-professionalisation, actually letting teachers celebrate and wallow in their own little stories, thus leading themselves away from a critical questioning of the situation they are being put in, the external political agendas that are imposed on them. The author fully subscribes in the same way to Bullough's critical reflections on a concept like "professional learning community," a concept that is very appealing at first sight, but that may serve very different agendas, some of them only contributing to teachers' deprofessionalisation. (Contains 1 note.) (ERIC).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10