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Diamond, C.T. Patrick & Mullen, Carol A. (Eds.) (1999).
The postmodern educator: Arts based inquiries and teacher
development. NY: Peter Lang. Vol 89 of Kincheloe, Joe L.
& Steinberg, Shirley R. (Eds). Studies in the postmodern
theory of education. NY: Peter Lang.
466 pp.
$38.90 ISBN 0-8204-4101-5
Reviewed by Marilyn Page
The Pennsylvania State University
September 25, 2002
This is not your ordinary book about teacher development and
teacher as researcher. And it would be an understatement to say
that this book examines alternative forms of research or even to
describe it, as the authors do, as a book about arts-based
inquiry. This book is not about pushing the envelope of research
approaches; it is a book about ripping into that envelope and
making sure it contains the support and alternative models for
those who haven't found a home in a traditional
quantitative or qualitative paradigm and for those who think and
know in different ways. The authors define and present the
rationale for approaches to educational research that involve
metaphor, fable, riddles, poetry, personal narrative, story
board, short stories, timelines, puppeteering and other artistic
concepts. The authors attempt to describe, and encourage
teachers to participate in inventing, the postmodern research of
the future.
At the core of arts-based inquiry is the concept of teacher
researcher development through gaining deep understanding of self
and others and inviting responses to those findings. Solipsism,
the theory that the self is the only reality that can be known
and verified, is the foundation of this approach. The authors
propose that examining oneself through arts-based inquiry and
media is an acceptable form of qualitative research; in doing so,
the authors revisit the polarity of the two prominent paradigms
of teacher development and educational research; that is: 1) the
belief that the truth is known and knowable and therefore needs
to be delivered in the form of external mandates and
accountability to ensure teacher development; and 2) that truth
is subjective and the strongest and deepest teacher growth is
developmental, internal, and limitless.
Part I of The postmodern educator develops and responds
to the question: Why should teachers be involved in arts-based
inquiry? Part II provides multiple examples of arts-based
inquiry models and the probable and expected impact of such
processes on teacher development. The thirteen contributing
authors are from Canada, the United States, and Australia and
include university faculty, K-12 teachers, a professional
puppeteer, and a university student. Diamond and Mullen
co-author Part I. One or the other or both co-author twelve of
the sixteen chapters in Part II in which the authors move through
the processes and possible outcomes of the futuristic and
sometimes fantasy world of metaphors, poetry, illustrations,
personal narrative, and other forms of self-discovery and
arts-based inquiry,
Part I provides at least three models that would be helpful in
developmentally grounded programs of teacher growth and it
focuses particularly on how teachers become strong researchers.
The authors propose that the three models will propel teachers to
gain deeper self-understanding and will propel them to use that
new self knowledge to drive themselves into new realms of
teaching, learning, and research productivity. The first model
asks teachers to look at three teacher self components and the
tensions among these selves. In this process, teachers define:
the teacher researcher I am; the teacher researcher I hope to
become; and the teacher researcher I fear to be (p.
74). Teachers use visual and textual strategies to uncover and
know these selves and thus to be able to transform their teaching
and researching. Teachers working through the second model
develop an autobiographical timeline on which they group events
into positive and negative spaces; the teachers then categorize
these events into phases; and then they name the phases. After
completing the timeline, teachers interpret and reinterpret the
phases to gain awareness of their own growth or lack of such and
then re-envision the timeline as a shape or form (such as a
butterfly, for example) that can invite one to grow and provide
directions for change (p. 80). A third model has teachers
drawing their teaching and research life as a winding river,
labeling slow and fast points along that river, and then using
that new understanding of self process to develop new approaches
to teaching and research (p. 80).
The authors provide here a new and vibrant spin on the dreary
and haggard dichotomy of the quantitative vs. qualitative
research wars. Here is a different, more colorful, and more
creative way to explore both what constitutes meaningful inquiry
and what can be a transforming developmental strategy for
educators.
It is another way for educators to examine and understand
research and its purposes and applications; it is a
complementary, rather than conflicting, approach to gaining new
knowledge. The underlying theme is that knowledge of teacher
self is as critical as knowledge about subject matter or
curriculum processes and more valuable than top down teacher
preparation procedures.
For teachers who know and see in other than traditional ways,
this book provides support and substantial rationale for inquiry
through a multitude of artistic media. For traditional minded
teachers and researchers it poses a vigorous mind exercise as
they are able, if willing, to examine approaches outside what
they now know. For anyone leading or conceptualizing a teacher
development process or program, this book is full of ideas that
can promote teacher self-awareness. Teacher mentors can find
exercises for novice teachers and themselves to foster personal
and professional awareness and further development of critical
questions for inquiry. For graduate students who seek to pursue
a different kind of dissertation, here is the support and the
names they need. And for those in top-down, delivered,
other-directed teacher preparation programs, maybe this will
encourage further examination of what constitutes meaningful
approaches to educational inquiry; maybe it will stretch
visions.
Warning: this is not for the faint or paralyzed of mind. At
times, the pages feel like a flume ride or a roller coaster ride
to Alice's Wonderland or Disney's fantasy World.
For some, it may seem like child's play. At times, the
metaphors are so thick and so frequent, the meaning gets
difficult to decipher. Diamond takes up the offensive in support
of the kind of self inquiry promoted in the book and defends this
approach against those who would claim it is too self absorbed.
However, there are times, especially in Chapter 7Reciting
and reviewing the educator self Exhibition of five self workswhen
it is overly self-indulgent. A little
goes a long way and here a lot goes way too far. Diamond seems
to be a pied piper of the self narrative as his former students
pop into his writing often and become his co-inquirers. But part
way through this chapter,
enough....
There is a place and room in educational inquiry for a variety
of approaches to knowing and researching. What is missing here
is a deliberate and scholarly description or definition of
documented outcomes of this kind of artistic inquiry. Does it
lead to stronger student learning and how would that be
measured?
Does it really help teachers develop, transform? If so, where
and what are the sustained results? Who defines
“transform?” And who defines “positive and
productive transformation?” And who defines “student
learning?” Do responses to these questions lead
automatically back to the seemingly perpetual debate over the
positions and paradigms of modern vs. postmodern, traditional vs.
constructivist (Marlowe & Page, 1998), quantitative vs.
qualitative, right vs. left, right-brained vs. left-brained?
The publication date (1999) may be problematic.
On the other
hand, perhaps the proposed concepts are not only timeless but
ahead of their times. Other authors and scholars more recently
also have explored new and different approaches to educational
research and doctoral preparation (Young, L.J., 2001; Pallas,
A.M., 2001; Metz, M.H., 2001; Page, R.N., 2001; Johnson, B.,
2001) and to reform in teacher preparation and professional
development (Cochran-Smith, M. & Fries, M.K., 2001). But,
have the events of and since September 11, 2001 given impetus to
the educational conservative train already in motion for several
years? Or will these events lead educators to think about
research and professional development in new ways? Will new
voices of and approaches to self knowledge and inquiry become
stronger or will they be stifled and meet their demise as Diamond
and Mullen claim the modernists have met theirs? The
postmodern educator provides you with a mosaic of ideas from
which to re-think, re-question, and re-formulate beliefs and
actions in teacher education and personal development.
Enjoy the journey.
References
Cochran-Smith, M. & Fries, M.K. (2001). Sticks, stones, and
ideology: The discourse of reform in teacher education.
Educational Researcher, 30(8), 3-15.
Johnson, B. (2001). Toward a new classification of
non-experimental quantitative research. Educational
Researcher, 30 (2), 3-13.
Marlowe, B. & Page, M. (1998). Creating and sustaining
the constructivist classroom. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Press.
Metz, M.H. (2001). Intellectual border crossing in graduate
education: A report from the field. Educational
Researcher, 30 (5), 12-18.
Pallas, A. M. (2001). Preparing education doctoral students
for epistemological diversity. Educational Researcher, 30
(5), 6-11.
Page, R.N. (2001). Reshaping graduate preparation in
educational research methods: One school's experience.
Educational Researcher, 30(5), 19-25.
Young, L.J. (2001). Border crossing and other journeys:
Re-envisioning the doctoral preparation of education researchers.
Educational Researcher, 30 (5), 3-5.
About the Reviewer
Marilyn Page, Ed.D.
Former Director of the Seashore Teacher Residency Pilot
Project for Novice Teachers in the State of Washington
Graduate Faculty
Curriculum and Instruction
Social Studies Education
College of Education
The Pennsylvania State University
168 Chambers
University Park, PA 16802
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