The lives of women as teacher educators : a kaleidoscope of reflections /
The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to explore how the
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| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
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[Place of publication not identified] :
[publisher not identified] ;
1997.
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| Online Access: | http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=739842011&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=2945&RQT=309&VName=PQD |
| Summary: | The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to explore how the life experiences of female teacher educators have shaped their personal visions of education. Participants were five women, all former classroom teachers, who have doctoral degrees in education and are currently employed as teacher educators at universities. These respondents represent a range of ages, geographic regions, career experiences, and cultural backgrounds. Data were primarily collected through multiple written and oral life history interviews. Additionally, curriculum vitae, professional writing samples, and personal artifacts chosen by the informants were collected. Data analysis was inductive and ongoing, occurring simultaneously with data collection. Transcribed oral interviews, written interviews, and selected documents were analyzed for emergent themes that revealed similarities, as well as differences, among the individual narratives of the participants. Each successive interview became more focused as the researcher and the participants jointly interpreted the findings. Findings were presented as individual biographies and as a set of themes which connected the life histories of the participants. Each theme linked the respondents' life histories to their personal visions of education. These themes were presented within the metaphorical framework of a kaleidoscope and included focus, collaboration, generativity, change, and reflection. Each respondent is extremely focused and has overcome obstacles to achieve both personal and professional fulfillment. All five participants are dependent upon collaboration with numerous others including spouses, children, teachers, colleagues, and students. Each informant has a need to be generative, producing new visions of personal relationships, careers as educators, and the field of education itself. Their personal visions of education focus upon change: changing the way educators see students, changing the way educators interact with students, and broadening the range of possibilities students envision for their own lives. Finally, all of the participants are actively engaged in intense self-reflection which allows them to create new visions. Findings were situated within recent research on creativity; women's professional development, particularly that described in the educational literature on gifted women; feminist theory and pedagogy; and teacher education and philosophy. Implications for theory and practice and recommendations for further research were also discussed. |
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| Item Description: | Vita. "Major Subject: Curriculum and Instruction". |
| Physical Description: | ix, 254 leaves ; 28 cm. Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilms Inc. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references: pages 231-242. |