INTRODUCTION

ATHENS INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

May 15-16, 2017

Athens Greece

Stories are a form of representation that help people keep track of their discoveries,

providing meaningful structure for remembering what has been learned.

~ McLellan Wyatt Digital ~

Stories from a Voiceless Profession reflect the oppressive educational landscape currently affecting U.S. education. This research is situated in New Mexico, namely the Northwest rural corner of the state. Teachers' professional sense of agency and voice has been compromised as others (administrators, politicians, educators and non-educators) at the local, state and federal levels are speaking for them, mandating myopic high stakes testing, scripted curriculum, and push down curriculum (learning in Kindergarten what typically is learned in First grade).

Teacher Practitioner research

also known as:

• teacher-as-scholar research

• classroom research

• practice-centered inquiry,

• practical inquiry

• storytelling school of research

Common Threads:

• Teachers are supported within a collegial community throughout the process

• Learning from each other and sharing their classroom work with one another

• Teachers are ethnographers in telling the stories of their classroom learning

If you want to share a vision or tell the truth, you pick up your pen and take your chances. ~ Nikki Giovanni ~

The stories we tell not only explain things to others, they explain them to ourselves. ~ Donald Norman ~

Common storytelling structures are:

• Case Study (Story) - one student in particular becomes the focus of the inquiry learning

• Autoethnography - personal teacher experiences are interwoven within the narrative

Teacher Practitioner Voices

The significance of this presentation is giving voice to teacher classroom inquiry stories. From start to finish, they own their stories, thereby recognizing and validating their own expertise as educators and scholars.

Christenbury & Lindblom (2016)

People are powerless, alone, afraid; this is because someone else is telling their story for them...Through storytelling, you recognize your real story.

~ Joseph Bruchac (Abenaki) ~

Related Sources

• UNM Teacher Practitioner Course Site

• National Writing Project (NWP) [Over 30 years of teacher practitioner research for teachers, by teachers as a professional development organization]