Negotiating the Traditional and the Idealistic: A Narrative Inquiry Approach to Pedagogical Realism

• In Event: 25.086 - Sheraton Roundtable Session One - Grand Centre
  In Roundtable Session: 25.086-13 - Conceptions of Narrative Knowledge and Pedagogy

Abstract

Negotiating the tensions between traditional obligations–including those associated with standards, reform, and teaching academic literacies—and social justice practice is a paramount concern for teachers. But many stakeholders struggle to balance helping students acquire the necessary disciplinary skills needed to succeed in academic spaces while simultaneously working to realize more socially just realities. In an attempt to address these conversations, we offer an orientation to English teacher preparation that recognizes and works through the demands, promises, synergies—even, at times, the limitations—of the traditional and the idealistic. Through narrative inquiry, we present ways of doing the technical and practical work of English teaching while still effecting more socially just realities. We name this orientation pedagogical realism.

Authors

• Jeanne Dyches, Iowa State University

• Brandon Lee Sams, Iowa State University