Class+Project

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I’ve been struggling with the issue of how to move forward on the class project and potential dissertation topic. When we wrote some of our questions in class a few weeks ago, you spent some time helping me to formulate questions around the broad issue of spirituality in teaching. The questions didn’t feel comfortable to me, however, and I think I’ve figured out why. We ended up focusing on what teachers do in order to be good teachers. Although that is important, the piece I’d like to look at is how what they do speaks to them about who they are (as a teacher, but also as a human being) – how teaching gives expression to the ways in which they understand themselves as persons – how teaching has become an avenue for them to express their identity (as they perceive themselves to be).

The situation that got me going in this direction was reading one of Parker Palmer’s books (//The Courage to Teach//) for another course. He says things like, “We teach who we are” and, “We did not merely find a subject to teach—the subject also found us,” and, “Knowing of any sort is relational, animated by a desire to come into deeper community with what we know.” I’d like to know what people who are educators think about those kinds of statements. How do these concepts make sense in the experiences of people who are educators? We talk a lot about the importance of learning being transformative; has teaching been transformative for these teachers? I think those would be important stories to tell.

Given the above, I’m thinking I’d like to provide some of these kinds of comments to a participant prior to the interview to give them time to reflect on pieces that they may consider worth reflection. Then, in the interview, in addition to getting feedback about their reactions to some of these remarks, I would have questions like the following:

· Could you describe what experiences in teaching (if any) have most enabled you to express what you understand about who you are as a person? · Could you describe what experiences in teaching (if any) have most enabled you to feel connected to life in any larger sense? · Could you describe what kinds of language (if any) you have used to communicate these experiences to yourself and to others? · Could you describe what experiences in the field of education (if any) have hindered these experiences from occurring more readily or more intensely? · Could you describe ways (if any) in which you have been able to build on these experiences in your personal and professional growth? · Could you describe ways (if any) in which these experiences have changed for you over time? · Could you describe ways (if any) in which teaching has been transformative for you? · Could you describe ways (if any) in which your identity or integrity has been compromised or violated in being an educator?

These types of questions feel closer to where I think I’d like to go in studying this issue. Do they make sense in the context of good qualitative research?