The Role of the Teacher's Bildungsroman in Postqualitative Research

• In Event: Thoughts Awaiting Narrative Researchers: Narrative Inquiry as "Public Scholarship" in the Age of Postqualitative Research

Abstract

Purpose:
The notion of teacher disposition is currently well researched in the field of teacher education in the U.S. and around the globe (Dottin, 2009). Recently, more and more teacher educators attempt to conceptualize teacher dispositions (Diez, 2007; Diez & Raths, 2007; Dottin, 2009; Johnson & Reiman, 2007) and grapple with the definitional and philosophical aspects of dispositions (Dottin, 2009). However, Johnson and Reiman (2007) posit that there is a lack of a clear understanding of the construct of disposition in the field of teacher education, which can be attributed to the lack of a guiding theoretical framework. The purpose of the paper is twofold: First, it aims to address the lack of guiding theoretical framework for teacher disposition in the field of teacher education; and second, it explores the role of narrative inquiry and Bildungsroman in particular as public scholarship in the era of post qualitative research, taking ontological approach to narrative inquiry.
Perspective/Theoretical Framework:
The German term, Bildung, elaborated in both philosophy and literature (see Davey, 2006; Gadamer, 1975/2006; Hardin, 1991), is an important concept in the human sciences (Gadamer, 1975/2006) that has a variety of obscure meanings, including “formation, cultivation, and education” (Davey, 2006, p. 37). The concept of Bildung, originated from the 18th century idealism, played a central role in the work of Goethe, Schiller, and Humboldt. They contend that our true purpose in life is to cultivate our diverse talents into a balanced whole, and it is up to humans to develop to their full potential through active engagement with the world around them (Kontje, 1993). Embedded in the notion of Bildung is that every individual can develop him/herself through education and cultivation (Wahlström, 2010). Hence, Bildung is an ontological way of developing or cultivating one’s capacity or oneself, rejecting the Cartesian notion of enlightenment (Gadamer, 1975/2006).
Modes of inquiry and data sources:
Drawing upon life story interviews with two female teachers and artifacts such as their writing samples and photos, I present two teachers’ stories of self-development. This narrative inquiry genre is called Bildungsroman, which is a story of developing oneself and one’s journey of becoming (Dunlop, 1999, 2001; Kim, 2015). According to Roberts (2008), one of the features of the Bildungsroman is “the idea of an inner or spiritual journey, the tension between the possible, and the actual and the importance of context in character formation” (p. 252).
Scholarly significance:
The significance of the study is twofold: First, it provides a philosophical and theoretical framework for a discussion of teacher dispositions, which is an emerging topic that lacks a theoretical foundation in teacher education. The discussion of Bildung will contribute to strengthening the theoretical foundation and provide new insights into teacher education. Second, Bildungsroman, a form of narrative inquiry serving as public scholarship is an unexplored area, hence, this proposal contributes to furthering narrative research. Bildungsroman has many implications for teacher education as well as for narrative inquiry, as it documents the processes of a teacher’s Bildung, providing artistic and aesthetic experience for the reader with its innovative quality.

Author

• Jeong-Hee Kim, Texas Tech University