Becoming a (Re)Searcher: Negotiating Literacies and Uncertainty

Abstract

In this paper I explore my evolving understandings of literacy and ways of knowing. Using autobiographical narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000), the first section of my paper delves into the ways I have previously negotiated concepts of literacy as an educator and novice researcher. In the second section of my paper, I turn towards Indigenous scholarship (Antone, 2003; Cardinal, 2010; Young, 2005) as I embrace my conception of literacy as “life lived” in conjunction with Freire’s (1985) concept of dwelling in uncertainty. By engaging narratively with my own literacy and learning experiences during the first year of my doctoral program, I negotiate uncertainty through three threads of learning: slowing down, being open to vulnerability, and walking humbly in good

Reimagining a curriculum in crisis

“…As a diverse learner, I am very awake to an ongoing perpetuation of colonial curricular violence. Embracing an understanding of literacy as life lived (Courtland 2020 ), I acknowledge each learner’s experience will be grounds for rich growth and development, even in the midst of a pandemic. My heightened concern comes from the ways by which many educators have been shaped to understand “curriculum” as a mastery of program outcomes instead of as an invitation to consider lived educational experiences.…”