Rooted: An inquiry into nature shaping pedagogy and sustenance on the professional knowledge landscape

Abstract

This thesis is an autobiographical narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) into two research puzzles: First, how have experiences alongside nature shaped my personal knowledge landscape? Second, how is this knowledge negotiated on my professional knowledge landscape, and how does this negotiation shape or shift my pedagogy? With attention to Dewey’s (1938) theory of continuity and interaction in experience, Connelly and Clandinin’s (1988) conception of personal practical knowledge, and Connelly and Clandinin’s (1999) conception of stories to live by, I describe myself as a person who feels planted in nature. I also describe myself as a teacher of young children in school places. Clandinin, Schaefer and Downey (2014) conceptualize places inside-of-work as the professional knowledge landscape and places outside-of-work as the personal knowledge landscape. In this autobiographical narrative inquiry I inquire into moments of tension, as well as moments of narrative coherence (Carr, 1986), as I negotiate my personal knowledge landscape on my professional knowledge landscape (Clandinin et al., 2014). I illustrate the implications of this negotiation for my pedagogy, as well as possible implications for curriculum making, teacher education, and further research. Key findings from this research position nature as an animate teacher, show that nature itself reflects narrative conceptions of knowledge (Dewey, 1938), and illustrate that, while teachers live in tension (Aoki, 2005) as they navigate around competing and conflicting stories of school, there are possibilities for negotiating around tension to feel sustained, or rooted, on the professional knowledge landscape (Clandinin et al., 2014).