Cultivating Classroom Spaces as Homes for Learning

Our action research ethnography explores sixth grade students’ perceptions of their classroom space as conducive or distracting to their learning experiences. Issues of physical environment, students’ self-governance, and disciplinary management are explored. We conclude by offering recommendations for other educators to consider

Teaching Narrative Interviewing: Reflecting, Narrating, and Becoming-In-Action

Qualitative inquiry teachers often seek powerful pedagogies to improve their students’ understandings. Using our experience leading a doctoral workshop, we share our method for teaching narrative interviewing using Schön’s (1983) “reflection-in-action,” meaning teachers and students reflect in the moment. We also root our pedagogy in Jerome Bruner’s (1986, 1990) narrative as a mode of thinking and a mode of being, a philosophy exploring the ways learners story their own and others’ lives. Describing our doctoral workshop, we highlight Laura, a recent graduate, narrating and becoming a qualitative inquirer. We conclude with a sample teaching lesson, designed to enhance students’ reflective research practices

Teaching Adult Learners Qualitative Inquiry

In this paper, we discuss the characteristics of adult learners, specifically the internal schemas and unique dynamics adult learners bring to classroom environments. We focus on the dual roles of teachers and learners as co-constructors of learning experiences. We conclude with a pragmatic example of how to teach researchers to understand their motivations for learning and how to engage in co-collaborative qualitative inquiry

Narrative Interviewing: Teaching and Learning Qualitative Inquiry

In this paper, we explore narrative interviewing as a powerful method for inviting novice researchers to experience the process of doing qualitative inquiry. Our theoretical lens stems from Schon, who encouraged adult learners to reflect-in-action, and Dewey’s notions of experience in education. In this vein, we encourage qualitative inquirers to reflect-in-action about their narrative experiences with learning, discovering, and expanding their orientations and engagements with qualitative methodologies. Embracing narrative as a way of knowing, we share an instructional example of narrative interviewing with a doctoral student, Lynn. By illuminating Lynn’s experience, with invite others to consider their own practices with teaching, learning, and doing qualitative inquiry