Open AccessGrowing…But Constrained: An Exploration of Teachers' and Researchers' Interactions with Culture and Diversity through Personal Narratives
Author(s) -
Kimetta R. Hairston,
Martha J. Strickland
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the qualitative report
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2160-3715
DOI - 10.46743/2160-3715/2011.1059
Subject(s) - diversity (politics) , narrative , sociology , pedagogy , cultural diversity , perspective (graphical) , constructivism (international relations) , teacher education , narrative inquiry , personal narrative , psychology , gender studies , anthropology , political science , linguistics , philosophy , international relations , artificial intelligence , politics , computer science , law
Educators from all realms of education who engage in in-depth conversations and reflections about personal experiences and perspectives related to diversity are significantly important to the cultural understandings in Education. This paper is a narrative analysis of how teachers who were enrolled in a Master's Program from two university campuses of the same predominantly White university participated in an in-depth look at their diverse cultural experiences through reflection and dialogue. Two researchers, one African American female utilizing the Critical Race Theory perspective the other Caucasian female using Socio-constructivism, interacted with one another and the teachers' narratives through several personal experiences interchanges. The resulting teacher/research dialogue on culture and diversity revealed how when the constraints of different theoretical frameworks and past encounters with culture and diversity are exposed a space for dialogue on culture and diversity, characterized by growth, opens up.