To ask or not to ask? Delving into the unspoken

• In Event: Tensions in Self-Study: Grappling with Boundaries, Relationships, & New Roles

Abstract

Using narrative inquiry methods with analytical tools of broadening, burrowing, and storying-restorying, this self-study delves into a 25-year secret story (Clandinin & Connelly, 1995; Author, 2000) whose troubling plotline/human impact were brought to light when what had been unspoken was finally revealed. Centered around one member’s leaving/returning stories (Author, 2014) to a teacher research group, we examined repercussions of things unsaid and/or situations unqueried, whose mystery remained in the bloodstream of the longstanding group, until difficult, unresolved questions were posed by someone from a different place and culture. Serial interpretation, a fourth narrative inquiry research tool, synthesizes the multiperspectival self-study accounts and reminds educators that even though laws change, people themselves may not change at the same pace.

Authors

• Annette Easley, Aldine Independent School District

• Michaelann Kelley, Mount St. Joseph University

• Gayle A. Curtis, Texas A&M University

• Cheryl J. Craig, Texas A&M University