The Art of the Possible: Relationships in Teaching and Learning

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to learn from the journeys of teacher educators the qualities that help to engender and sustain a commitment to an empowering pedagogy. An empowering pedagogy is understood as one that enhances students’ sense of agency and confidence in themselves and their relationships with each other. Professional experiences that challenge or enable the development of such pedagogy are also explored through the stories of pre-service teachers and myself. Two case studies of outstanding teacher educators were undertaken in order to explore how they engender relationships in the classroom and their importance to students’ learning. While there has been a great deal of research into quality teaching and learning in schools, understandings of pedagogy in tertiary settings are constrained by conceptions of learning as an individual cognitive process. This means that the affective dimensions of pedagogy have been little explored. This thesis addresses this gap. Arts-informed narrative inquiry is the methodology adopted. This approach recognises the interconnections between personal and professional development and involves participants in the creative reconstruction of experience. The findings from the case studies are represented in the form of a story that draws on the tradition of magical realism. This style enables a sense of the energies and qualities that help to foster an empowering pedagogy to be experienced. The themes that emerge from participating pre-service teachers’ stories illuminate the importance of the embodied ways in which the teacher’s sense of self and sense of relationship with others comes into play in the classroom. These senses manifest in the embodied responsiveness of the case study teacher educators and the creative ways that they foster enjoyment in learning and enabling relationships in the classroom. Experiences of enabling relationships can engender feelings of equality, self-acceptance, mutual trust, inclusion and enjoyment in learning among students. The shared experience of these qualities helps to create an empowering pedagogy.