Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-2007

Abstract

This article presents a study of the effects of creating a bridge between the narrative and ethnographic methods and writing processes as a means to more effectively educate teachers of culturally diverse learners. Ten teacher-participants from a Masters of Education (M.Ed.) degree programme in Bilingual Education at a university in the northwestern United States took a sequence of courses in which instructor-researchers taught them narrative and ethnographic pedagogy, theory, and methodology. Through qualitative methods, instructor-researchers analyzed teacher-participants’ personal narratives and ethnographic case studies for generative themes. In discovering the commonalities of themes between these two methods of inquiry, the research reveals the value and transformative nature of building a bridge between narrative and ethnographic methods. The following overlapping generative themes were voiced by teacher-participants: 1) awareness of self and others; 2) consciousness of educational issues and their implications; 3) transformative action and advocacy. These themes are substantiated with related literature and further elucidated upon in the paper.

Comments

This is an author-produced, peer-reviewed version of this article. The final, definitive version of this document can be found online at Teaching and Teacher Education, published by Elsevier. Copyright restrictions may apply. DOI: 10.1016/j.tate.2007.11.013