Abstract
It is common in early childhood education (ECE), for student teachers to be asked to reflect on incidents or scenarios that occur while on practicum and relate their reflections to theory. This process of identification and corroboration, demonstrates the student’s familiarity with the dominant developmental narratives within which ECE is situated. The pressure on students to conform to prescribed theory and the local narratives of the practicum context can, however, make it difficult for them to question both the texts they are asked to apply in their teaching, as well as the practice they are observing and seeking to engage. In Bakhtinian theory, ‘voice’ is promoted through a community of learning, and a critical engagement creating new knowledge and subsequent practice. This theme of developing a critical voice for ECE students is the subject matter of this paper, with reference to practicum experience and Bakhtin’s essay, “Epic and Novel: Towards a Methodology for the Study of the Novel.” (Bakhtin 1982).
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bakhtin, M. 1982. Epic and novel. In The Dialogic Imagination, ed. M. Holquist, Trans. Caryl Emmerson & Michael Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Bakhtin, M. 2002. The Bildungsroman and its significance in the history of realism. In Speech genres and other essays, ed. Emmerson, C. Holquist, M, Trans. Vern W. McGee, 10–59. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Britzman, D.P. 1991. Practice makes practice: a critical study of learning to teach. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Dall’Alba, G. 2009. Learning professional ways of being: ambiguities of becoming. Education Philosophy and Theory 41(1): 34–45.
Elliott, S. (1999). Carnival and dialogue in Bakhtin’s poetics. iuscholarworks repository. https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/2022/2327/1/30(1-2)+129-139.pdf. Accessed 3 Mar 2014.
Goodfellow, J., and J. Sumsion. 2010. Transformative pathways: field-based teacher educators’ perceptions. Journal of Education for Teaching: International research and pedagogy 26(3): 245–257.
Goodson, I.F. 1988. The Making of curriculum: collected essays, 2nd ed. London, New York, Philadelphia: Falmer.
Halliday, J. 1998. Technicism, reflective practice and authenticity in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education 14(6): 597–605.
Hoel, T.L. 1999. Students cooperating in writing: teaching, learning, and research based on theories from Vygotsky and Bakhtin. Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, Lahti, Finland September. http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00001347.htm. Accessed 10 July 2012.
Hsu, P.L., and W.M. Roth. 2014. From authoritative discourse to internally persuasive discourse: discursive evolution in teaching and learning the language of science. Cultural Studies of Science Education 9: 729–753.
Mansfield, J., and C. Naughton 2010. Narrating the politics of methodology: researching in early childhood education. He Kupu, 2(3), 70–75. http://www.hekupu.ac.nz/Journal%20files/Issue3%20August%202010/Narrating%20the%20politics%20of%20methodology%20Researching%20in%20early%20childhood%20education.pdf. Accessed 13 Apr 2012.
Matusov, E. 2007. Applying Bakhtin scholarship on discourse in education: a critical review essay. Educational Theory 57(2): 215–237.
McLean, S.V. 1999. Becoming a teacher: the person in the process. In The role of self in teacher development, ed. R.P. Lipka, and T.M. Brinthaupt, 55–91. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Meijers, F. 2013. Monologue to dialogue: education in the 21st century introduction to the special issue. International Journal for Dialogical Science 7(1): 1–10.
Osberg, D.C. 2008. The logic of emergence an alternative conceptual space for theorizing critical education. Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies 6(1): 133–161.
Small, R. 1994. Phenomenology and existentialism. In International Encyclopaedia of Education (2nd ed.), pp. 4429–33. Oxford: Pergamon.
Stewart, T. 2010. “A dialogic pedagogy” looking to Mikhail Bakhtin for alternatives to standard period teaching practices. Critical Education 1(6): 1–21.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Naughton, C. A Reflection on Bakhtin’s ‘Epic and Novel’ in the Context of Early Childhood Student Teachers’ Practicum. Stud Philos Educ 35, 93–101 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-015-9469-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-015-9469-0