Abstract
A burden that I carry from my past and for which I feel accountable is the educational privilege that characterised my school experience as a White1, middleclass, high-achiever in apartheid South Africa. While it might seem disingenuous to describe educational privilege as a burden, in looking back over my professional life as a teacher and university educator, I can see how my initial choice to become a teacher and my subsequent pedagogic choices and undertakings have been influenced by my emotional distress at having been privileged, primarily because of my racial classification, at the expense of other children.
Keywords
- Professional Learning
- Teaching Writing
- Field Text
- Doctoral Research
- Narrative Inquiry
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Andrews, D., & Osman, R. (2015). Redress for academic success: Possible ‘lessons’ for university support programmes from a high school literacy and learning intervention: Part 2. South African Journal of Higher Education, 29(1), 354–372.
Barone, T. (2008). Creative nonfiction and social research. In J. G. Knowles & A. L. Cole (Eds.), Handbook of the arts in qualitative research (pp. 105–115). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Bharuthram, S. (2012). Making a case for the teaching of reading across the curriculum in higher education. South African Journal of Education, 32(2), 205–214. Retrieved from http://www.sajournalofeducation.co.za/index.php/saje/article/view/557
Breckenridge, J. P. (2016). The reflexive role of tanka poetry in domestic abuse research. Journal of Research in Nursing, 1–14.
Butler-Kisber, L. (2005). Inquiry through poetry: The genesis of self-study. In C. Mitchell, S. Weber & K. O’Reilly-Scanlon (Eds.), Just who do we think we are? Methodologies for autobiography and self-study in teaching (pp. 95–110). London, UK: RoutledgeFalmer.
Charon, R., Hermann, N., & Devlin, M. J. (2016). Close reading and creative writing in Clinical Education: Teaching attention, representation, and affiliation. Academic Medicine: Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, 91(3), 345–350.
Christie, P. (1991). The right to learn: The struggle for education in South Africa (2nd ed.). Braamfontein, South Africa: Ravan Press and Sached Trust.
Clandinin, J. (2013). Engaging in narrative inquiry. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (1994). Personal experience methods. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 413–427). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Conle, C. (2000). Thesis as narrative or ‘What is the inquiry in narrative inquiry?’ Curriculum Inquiry, 30(2), 189-214.
Connell, R. W. (1993). Schools and social justice. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Coulter, C. A., & Smith, M. L. (2009). The construction zone: Literary elements in narrative research. Educational Researcher, 38(8), 577–590.
Day, C., & Lee, J. C.-K. (Eds.). (2011). New understandings of teacher's work: Emotions and educational change: Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Denzin, N. K. (1994). The art and politics of interpretation. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 500–515). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Dewey, J. (1934). Art as experience. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.
Dewey, J. (1963). Experience and education. New York: Collier Books. (Original work published 1938.)
DeSalvo, L. A. (2000). Writing as a way of healing: How telling our stories transforms our lives. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Dolby, N. E. (2001). Constructing race: Youth, identity, and popular culture in South Africa. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Eisner, E. W. (1997). The promise and perils of alternative forms of data representation. Educational Researcher, 26(6), 4–10.
Elbow, P. (2000). Everyone can write: Essays toward a hopeful theory of writing and teaching writing. New York: Oxford University Press.
Erikson, E. H. (1963). Childhood and society (2nd ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. (Original work published 1950.)
Faulkner, S. L. (2007). Concern with craft using Ars Poetica as criteria for reading research poetry. Qualitative Inquiry, 13(2), 218–234.
Faulkner, S. L. (2016). The art of criteria Ars Criteria as demonstration of vigor in poetic inquiry. Qualitative Inquiry, 1–4.
Furman, R., & Dill, L. (2015). Extreme data reduction: The case for the research Tanka. Journal of Poetry Therapy, 28(1), 43–52.
Ivanič, R. (1998). Writing and identity: The discoursal construction of identity in academic writing. Amsterdam; Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.
Henning, E., & Van Rensburg, W. (2002). Academic development in writing composition: Beyond the limitations of a functionalist and pragmatic curriculum. Journal for Language Teaching, 36(1 & 2), 82–90.
Johri, A. K. (2015). Multiple narrators: Using double voice poems to examine writing personas. In K. Pithouse-Morgan & A. P. Samaras (Eds.), Polyvocal professional learning through self-study research (pp. 173–196). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Kallaway, P. (Ed.). (2002). The history of education under apartheid, 1948–1994: The doors of learning and culture shall be opened. Cape Town, South Africa: Pearson Education.
Langer, C., & Furman, R. (2004). Exploring identity and assimilation: Research and interpretive poems. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 5(2), Article 5. Retrieved from http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/609
Madondo, S. (2014). Nurturing learners’ flair for written communication: A teacher’s self-study. Unpublished MEd thesis, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. Retrieved from http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/handle/10413/12626
Magubane, S. E. (2014). Cultivating intrinsic motivation for learning Technology: A teacher’s selfstudy. Unpublished MEd thesis, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. Retrieved from http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/handle/10413/12883
Mishler, E. G. (1990). Validation in inquiry-guided research: The role of exemplars in narrative studies. Harvard Educational Review, 60, 415–442.
Mkhize, N. S. (2016). Integrating cultural inclusivity in a grade 4 classroom: A teacher's self-study. Unpublished MEd thesis, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.
Nash, R. J., & Viray, S. (2014). How stories heal: Writing our way to meaning and wholeness in the academy. New York: Peter Lang.
Ndaleni, T. (2013). Teaching English oral communication to IsiZulu-speaking learners in a secondary school: A self-study. Unpublished MEd dissertation, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. Retrieved from http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/handle/10413/11506
Palmer, P. J. (1998). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’s life. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Pithouse, K. (2003). What is this? What is this? What is this? A teacher’s personal narrative inquiry into a memorable curriculum experience. Unpublished MEd thesis, University of Natal, Durban, South Africa. Retrieved from http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/xmlui/handle/10413/3686
Pithouse, K. (2004). “This gave us a chance to feel like we are authors”: A chapter in my story of learning to teach writing. English Quarterly, 36(10), 15–17.
Pithouse, K. (2005). Self-study through narrative interpretation: Probing lived experiences of educational privilege. In C. Mitchell, S. Weber, & K. O'Reilly-Scanlon (Eds.), Just who do we think we are? Methodologies for autobiography and self-study in teaching (pp. 206–217). London, UK: RoutledgeFalmer.
Pithouse, K. (2007). Learning through teaching: A narrative self-study of a novice teacher educator. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. Retrieved from http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/xmlui/handle/10413/482
Pithouse, K. (2011). “The future of our young children lies in our hands”: Re-envisaging teacher authority through narrative self-study. In C. Mitchell, T. Strong-Wilson, K. Pithouse, & S. Allnutt (Eds.), Memory and pedagogy (pp. 177–190). New York: Routledge.
Pithouse-Morgan, K. (2016). Finding my self in a new place: Exploring professional learning through found poetry. Teacher Learning and Professional Development, 1(1), 1–18. Retrieved from http://journals.sfu.ca/tlpd/index.php/tlpd/article/view/1
Pithouse-Morgan, K., De Lange, N., Mitchell, C., Moletsane, R., Olivier, T., Stuart, J., Van Laren, L., & Wood, L. (2013). Creative and participatory strategies for teacher development in the age of AIDS. In J. Kirk, M. Dembélé, & S. Baxter (Eds.), More and better teachers for quality education for all: Identity and motivation, systems and support (pp. 75–90). E-book available online at http://moreandbetterteachers.wordpress.com/: Collaborative Works.
Pithouse-Morgan, K., Khau, M., Masinga, L., & Van de Ruit, C. (2012). Letters to those who dare feel: Using reflective letter-writing to explore the emotionality of research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 11(1), 40-56. Retrieved from http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/IJQM/article/view/8255
Pithouse-Morgan, K., & Samaras, A. P. (2015). The power of “we” for professional learning. In K. Pithouse-Morgan & A. P. Samaras (Eds.), Polyvocal professional learning through self-study research (pp. 1–20). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Pithouse-Morgan, K., & van Laren, L. (2012). Towards academic generativity: Working collaboratively with visual artefacts for self-study and social change. South African Journal of Education, 32(4), 416–427. Retrieved from www.ajol.info/index.php/saje/article/download/83105/73195
Pithouse-Morgan, K., & Van Laren, L. (2015). Dialogic memory-work as a method to explore the “afterlife” of our self-study doctoral research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 14, 80–97. Retrieved from http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/IJQM/article/view/21070
Poets.org. (2004a). Poetic form: Renga. Retrieved from https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/poeticform-renga
Poets.org. (2004b). Poetic form: Tanka. Retrieved from http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/poeticform-tanka
Profession. (n.d.) In The online etymology dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=profession
Richards, R. (2016). Subject to interpretation: Autoethnography and the ethics of writing about the embodied self. In D. Pillay, I. Naicker, & K. Pithouse-Morgan (Eds.), Academic autoethnographies: Inside teaching in higher education (pp. 163–174). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Richardson, L. (1993). Poetics, dramatics, and transgressive validity: The case of the skipped line. The Sociological Quarterly, 34(4), 695–710.
Richardson, L. (2003). Writing: A method of inquiry. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials (2nd ed., pp. 499–541). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Rigour. (n.d.) In The online etymology dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=&search=rigor
Rosenberg, T. (2016). Conversations and the cultivation of self-understanding. In D. Pillay, I. Naicker, & K. Pithouse-Morgan (Eds.), Academic autoethnographies: Inside teaching in higher education (pp. 33–47). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Samaras, A. P., Hicks, M. A., & Berger, J. G. (2004). Self-study through personal history. In J. J. Loughran, M. L. Hamilton, V. K. LaBoskey, & T. Russell (Eds.), International handbook of selfstudy of teaching and teacher education practices (Vol. 2, pp. 905–942). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Sand-Jensen, K. (2007). How to write consistently boring scientific literature. Oikos, 116, 723–727.
Van Manen, M. (1990). Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Vardi, I. (2011). The impact of iterative writing and feedback on the characteristics of tertiary students’ written texts. Teaching in Higher Education, 1–13.
Vigour. (n.d.) In The online etymology dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=&search=vigor
Walford, G. (1991). Reflexive accounts of doing educational research. In G. Walford (Ed.), Doing educational research (pp. 1–18). London, UK: Routledge.
Webster-Wright, A. (2009). Reframing professional development through understanding authentic professional learning. Review of Educational Research, 79(2), 702–739.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Sense Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pithouse-Morgan, K. (2017). Beginning to Unravel a Narrative Tension in My Professional Learning about Teaching Writing. In: Hayler, M., Moriarty, J. (eds) Self-Narrative and Pedagogy. Studies in Professional Life and Work. SensePublishers, Rotterdam. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6351-023-3_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6351-023-3_5
Publisher Name: SensePublishers, Rotterdam
Online ISBN: 978-94-6351-023-3
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)