Reverberating chords: Implications of storied nostalgia for borderland discourses in pre-service teacher identity
Abstract
The research that is the subject of this paper set out to interrogate pre-service teachers’ responses to issues of national identity, ideology, and representation in contemporary multicultural Canadian picture books. While the research focused on whether and how the literature could serve to inform and broaden pre-service teachers’ conceptualizations of diversity, we retrospectively decided to re-visit the focus group and interview data to know which of the 70 picture books had most engaged the teachers and why. We critically consider the implications of teachers’ attachments for social justice education and teachers’ cultivation of a critical, ‘borderlands’ discourse aware of self and open to others. The research suggests that a significant source of teacher knowledge and thinking is lodged in teachers’ personal memories of childhood texts, called touchstones. Touchstones were a place from which teachers implicitly began; certain stories struck particular chords, chords largely attributable to childhood memories. Most intertextual connections were personal, with some tangential to the text. While touchstones performed different functions depending on the subject position of the pre-service teachers, they pointed to the existence of an underlying position of teacher as nostalgic subject. Given the importance of this subject position for teachers’ responses to picture books, we explore critical reconceptualizations of nostalgia that can support the development of borderland discourses. We suggest that pre-service teachers need to be invited to individually and collectively examine their responses to both old and new touchstone stories. More nuanced research also needs to be conducted on the role of nostalgia in teacher formation, how it influences teacher practice, and how to best design teacher education courses to foster ‘borderland discourses’ related to the storying of teacher identity, especially with respect to popular ‘collectibles’ and core teaching texts like picture books.
Reference
Strong-Wilson, T., Johnston, I., Wiltse, L., Burke, A., Phipps, H., & Gonzalez, I. (2014). Reverberating chords: Implications of storied nostalgia for borderland discourses in pre-service teacher identity. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 20(4), 394-409.
Journal
Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice
Analysis
Is this article part of a larger project or series of studies?
yes
Does this study draw on a large, preexisting data set?
no
Research Approach
Geographic Setting
Institutional Context
Certification Level
Programatic Focus
Research Location Context
- Courses related to English language arts
- Multi-sited (across universities)
- University
Preservice Participants
- Undergraduates (university based program)
Preservice Sample Size
5
Duration of Data Collection
Data Sources
- Focus group discussions
- Interviews
- Transcriptions
Data Analysis Tools
Researcher Positionality
- inside (staying their own students)
- Outside (not directly invested in the program or operations)
Research Questions
Which contemporary multicultural Canadian picture books most engaged pre-service teachers and why?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? No