What is this? What is this? What is this? : a teacher's personal narrative inquiry into a memorable curriculum experience.
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Date
2003
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Abstract
In this dissertation, I present a narrative curriculum inquiry that grew out of a personal
teaching experience in an independent Durban school in 2001. A grade seven creative
writing project in English turned out to be an experience that was emotionally as well as
intellectually intriguing to me. After carrying out the teaching work of my grade seven
Teen Stories project, I was left with a strong desire to know what it was about this
particular experience that was so important to me. The focus of my research, therefore,
became my personal curriculum experience in the context of the Teen Stories creative
writing project.
In the course of this thesis, I describe how my desire to come to a deeper understanding
of my curriculum experience led me to search within my life story to discover fruitful
truths about myself as a teacher and a researcher. I illustrate my research journey from
the fieldwork in the classroom through to the construction of my narrative research text.
Drawing on the conceptual work of scholars such as Dewey (1916; 1934; 1963), Denzin
(1989), Clandinin and Connelly (2000), and Conle (1999; 2000), I endeavour to share,
make sense of and theorise my personal story of a significant curriculum experience. The
study moves outwards from my personal experience to a conceptualisation that I believe
has the potential to contribute to the development of new modes of curriculum practice
for me and other members of my South African teaching community.
Description
Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, 2003.
Keywords
English language--Composition and exercises--Study and teaching--South Africa., English language--Rhetoric--Study and teaching--South Africa., Theses--Education.