Loading...
An arts based narrative inquiry into children’s experiences of the five foundations of the social-emotional and academic learning program you can do it! program achieve
Meegan, John
Meegan, John
Citations
Altmetric:
Abstract
My research aims to narratively inquire into students’ experiences of the five foundations of
the social-emotional and academic learning program ‘You Can Do It (YCDI) Program
Achieve’ (2007) and explore the impact the program has had on their lives on and off the
school landscape. I also present and explore how eight primary school children composed
their individual stories to live by, a narrative form of identity (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000),
through stories shared throughout this inquiry. What might I learn by inquiring into these
experiences, where children’s stories of the YCDI foundations and the program intersect
and bump against school stories and other stories we live in (Morris, 2002)? How might
inquiring into emerging tensions deepen understanding of cultural, institutional, and social
narratives shaping the students' lives and stories? How might my inquiry expand knowledge
about the YCDI program and the meeting of diverse lives on school landscapes?
My research puzzle considered YCDI conversations as spaces where children
engaged in meaning and identity-making, where tensions arose as stories bumped against
dominant cultural, institutional, and social narratives in an out-of-classroom place
(Clandinin & Connelly, 1999). The participants’ stories and my autobiographical narratives
revealed the complexity of navigating the school landscape and the workshops. This
complexity led to a re-imagining of the school landscape as a space where students’ and
teachers’ lives and stories entwined, entangled, bumped, and shifted in relation to others in
creative, curious, and often tension-filled ways. I understand the context for teacher
knowledge in terms of the professional knowledge landscape (Clandinin & Connelly, 1995)
and teachers’ personal practical knowledge (Connelly & Clandinin, 1988). I also wish to
IV
make space for students' personal learner knowledge to attend to their embodied lives,
wisdom, and school experiences.
Drawing upon the relational nature of narrative inquiry, I use the guiding metaphor
of a ‘life-timeline’ to ground myself and my participants in the three-dimensional narrative
inquiry space of the personal, social, temporal, and place or series of places (Clandinin &
Connelly, 2000). During the first stage of my inquiry, I came alongside my participants as we
engaged in arts-based workshops based around the students’ experiences of the five
foundations of the YCDI (2007) program; Organisation, Confidence, Getting Along,
Resilience and Persistence. We came alongside each other again, one year later, where we
engaged in one-to-one creative conversations where I shared their stories with them while
also revisiting and, in some instances, restorying their pieces of art. This narrative inquiry
has revealed numerous threads and plotlines such as storylines of YCDI foundations,
storylines of the program's impact, storylines of competition, marginalization, resistance,
tension, family, school, belonging, and care
Description
Publication Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Collections
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
writing as inquiry, Narrative inquiry, You Can Do It! Education, YCDI