To pause, to notice, to wonder: living love, teaching in relation
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Date
2023-07-13
Authors
Neufeld, Sara
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Abstract
This thesis is an autobiographical narrative inquiry into my everyday stories from years of teaching and learning in Kindergarten in an urban elementary school in western Canada. These are stories that pulled at me to pause, to notice, and to wonder at the tensions within—at the embodied wisdom, the uncertainties, and then the new emergent and generative wonderings that they surface. The research puzzle that emerged from these stories is: Who am I and who might we become if we centre our relationality, if we live love? What does it mean within the school system to be present to and to live in alignment with relationality and love? Who might we become as we live into such possibility? There are three main threads in the inquiry that carry relational possibility: a thread of practising presence and attending to embodied wisdom of self, a thread of a needs-orientation that serves relationships, and a thread of equity and how systems are both shaped by and shape relationships. I hold these stories in conversation with others who bring a relational and love-oriented focus, such as Dwayne Donald, bell hooks, and Marshall Rosenberg; and who contribute to practising presence and embodiment—such as Maxine Greene, Prentis Hemphill, Oren Ergas, and Thupten Jinpa. The voices of all of the thinkers/writers/speakers/teachers/practitioners included in this thesis offer expanding possibilities and meaning potentials when their contributions are held in conversation together with my stories.
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relationality, love ethic, contemplative studies, autobiographical narrative inquiry, kindergarten, presence, embodiment, Nonviolent Communication, equity, reconciliation