Making Education Law Meaningful to Beginning Teachers: A Narrative Inquiry

Authors

  • Julian Kitchen Brock University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37119/ojs2010.v16i2.104

Keywords:

teacher education, reform, narrative inquiry, constructivist, education law

Abstract

Teacher education classes are contested spaces.  Professors interested in reforming content, pedagogy and assessment must wrestle with their own internal tensions and the culture of their institutions in order to make a difference.  In this paper, a teacher educator uses narrative inquiry to frame his efforts to become a constructivist professor of education law.  Critical tensions are examined using a three-dimensional narrative inquiry space: looking inward, outward, backward, and forward.  Critical reflections, written over several years, are used to situate the tensions experienced in this case into the broader context of the author’s career journey.

Keywords: teacher education; reform; narrative inquiry; constructivist; education law

Author Biography

Julian Kitchen, Brock University

Dr. Julian Kitchen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Teacher Education, Faculty of Education, Brock University where he teaches courses on professionalism and law.. He obtained a B.A. (Toronto), B.Ed. (Windsor), M.Ed. (Toronto), and Ph.D. (Toronto). Julian taught Intermediate/Secondary History and English over a decade. Before joining Brock in 2006, he was an adjunct professor for seven years at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. He is also one of the editors of Brock Education: A Journal of Educational Research and Practice. He just published a Relational Teacher Development: A Quest for Meaning in the Garden of Teacher Experience (LAP Lambert, 2009). Julian’s research interests include: teacher education, self-study of teacher education practices, teacher development, teacher induction, aboriginal education, narrative inquiry, and education law.  His research interests include Aboriginal education, teacher education, narrative inquiry and education law.

jkitchen@brocku.ca

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Published

2013-01-16

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 2 (2010): Autumn 2010 Special Issue:[Narrative] in education

Section

Articles

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