Exploring Learning, Identity and Power Through Life History and Narrative Research

ISBN-13: 9780415496421 / Angielski / Twarda / 2010 / 190 str.

Ann-Marie Bathmaker;Penelope Harnett

Opis

What stories can we tell of ourselves and others and why should they be of interest to others? Exploring Learning, Identity and Power through Life History and Narrative Research responds to these questions with examples from diverse educational and social contexts. The book brings together a collection of writing by different authors who use a narrative/life history approach to explore the experiences of a wide range of people, including teachers, nurses, young people and adults, reflecting on learning and education at significant moments in their lives. In addition, each chapter provides an account by the author of the process of constructing research narratives, and the second chapter of the book focuses specifically on ethical issues in life history and narrative research. This book:

• provides vivid examples of a narrative/life history approach to research
• uses narrative/life history to explore identity, power and social justice
• offers an effective model for practice.

With contributions from a number of international experts, this book addresses key issues of social justice and power played out within different contexts, and also discusses the ethics of narrative research directly. The book makes a timely contribution to the growing interest in the use of narrative and life history research. With the increasing importance of continuing professional development for many working in education, health and social service contexts, the book will be of interest to both students and researchers, as it provides clear examples of how researching professionals can use narrative research to investigate a particular area of interest.

This book brings together a collection of writing about learning, power and identity. Each of the main chapters uses a narrative/life history approach to explore the experiences of a wide range of different people, including teachers, nurses, young children, library workers, adults who attended secondary modern schools in the post-war period, and others. In addition, the book provides a critical overview of contemporary life history/narrative research, and an account of the process of constructing research narratives.

This book will:

• provide vivid examples of a narrative/life history approach to research in different educational and learning contexts
• use this approach to explore identity, power and social justice in education and learning
• demonstrate inter-connections between research and the construction of research, which offer a model for practice for other practitioner research groups.

The book makes a timely contribution to the growing interest in undertaking narrative and life history research. This is particularly relevant as there is now a continuing expansion of practitioner research, linked to an emphasis on research-based professions in education, health, and social service occupations. There are now requirements for continuing professional development by such professionals, which is reflected in an expansion of professional doctorate programmes as well as Masters and general CPD courses. This book will speak directly to such an audience as it provides examples for students of how professionals have used narrative research to investigate their particular research questions. It addresses key issues of social justice and power played out within different contexts, and discusses the ethics of narrative research directly.

Spis treści

@contents: Selected Contents: 1. Introduction to the book  2. The ethics of writing life histories and narratives in educational research  3. Literacy and numeracy histories – A case study of one child and his parent’s accounts of what was learned  4. Interrogating identity and belonging through life history: experiences of overseas nurses in post colonial Britain  5. ‘I lived down the road from you’: exploring power and identity, then and now  6. In Our Own Words. From Action to Learning Dialogues  7. A process of (un)becoming: life history research and the connection between the personal, professional and teacher professional development  8. This Do In Remembrance of Me: Narrative Uncertainty and the Frothing of Contentious Identity  9. I’m being measured as an NQT, that isn’t who I am’: second career teachers entering the culture of the primary school  10. A History of Not Seeing, Invisibility and Anchors: Images of Ethnic Minorities in History Textbooks  11. Changing identities through re-engagement with education: Two narrative accounts  12. Conclusion