A Personal and Professional Journey: Reflections on Becoming University Colleagues in Teaching English Language Arts

• In Event: Journeys of Self: Critical Reflections by Teacher Educators on Their Professional Identity Trajectories

Abstract

Purpose
This paper retells in alternating voices the personal and professional journey of two teacher educators and their experience in becoming colleagues in the preparation of secondary English Language Arts teachers in the University of Central Florida, Orlando. We, two faculty members, are in different stages in our academic careers. Author 1 is set to retire from his faculty position while Author 2 is just beginning her academic career. This paper consists of a narrative conversation between the two, discussing the similarities and differences in our respective careers and how our individual interest and perspectives have shaped our personal and professional journeys.

Framework
As teacher educators, we acknowledge the importance of dialogic interactions present in narratives and conversations because it is through dialogic expression that ideas are probed, questioned and reflected upon. According to Bakhtin (1986) “At any moment in the development of the dialogue there are immense, boundless masses of forgotten contextual meanings, but at certain moments of dialogues subsequent development along the way they are recalled and invigorated in renewed form (in a new context)” (p.170). It is our hope that through these dialogues, teacher educators’ pedagogical practices and beliefs are revisited.

Methodology
Using as our model of inquiry self-study methodology in teacher education research (Hamilton, 2004; LaBoskey, 2004; Loughran, 2005; Mitchell, Weber, & O’Reilly-Scanlon, 2013; Russel, 2004), and our dialogic interactions, we purposefully sought out to answer the exploration questions of: (a) how and why we teach what we teach and (b) how our teaching is reflected in the conversations, dialogues, writings and teaching.
Data sources included personal reflective journals, drawings and photos of teaching and classroom discussions, critical reflections of narrative practices, and rich discussions. These documents were useful for establishing our perceptions of narratives, dialogic interactions, pedagogical practices and beliefs.
Moreover, we (teacher educators) revisited our goals for teaching and our own pedagogical beliefs. We became immersed in our dialogic interactions and thus were able to draw upon our self-discovery through our own personal narratives
Merged in our collective admiration for the use of the personal to define the professional, we discuss how our moral, social and political ideals influence and shape our professional relationship and in turn, defines our academic research and practices. From preparing teacher in-service workshops to presenting and writing professional journal articles, our connection and symbiotic understanding of who we are and what we want to accomplish in the name of teacher education professionalism is shared and defined.

Findings
As Haynes (2009) asserts: “Developing students’ hearts, I believe, is what educators are called to do”. With our shared partnership, we are better informed to navigate the world of academia and beyond. Our partnership fosters an environment where we hope to stay true to the essence of our teaching and research - the use of teacher narratives and self-study to understand professional development in the preparation of teachers. Our paper concludes with advice for emerging and retiring scholars, and teacher educators that draws specifically from our shared professional journey.

Authors

• Elsie Lindy Olan, University of Central Florida

• Jeffrey Stuart Kaplan, University of Central Florida