Using Memory Work To Recall Childhood Experiences of Learning: Collaborative Reflections on Four Self-Study Projects

Abstract

We are South African self-study researchers who started building our collaborative relationship as critical friends completing our doctoral studies. We have a keen interest in self-study research, and we all received our doctorates through self-study using arts-based research. Our collective self-study explores our doctoral work as critical friends teaching and learning using arts-based research in education. This article presents how we used memory work in a self-study project to elicit childhood memories for teacher-learner engagement and mentor-mentee knowledge sharing. We understand that a sociocultural theoretical perspective highlights the fundamental requirement of working together in educational contexts to make sense of collective and personal experiences. In addition, employing self-study research and revisiting our learning has assisted or even encouraged us to engage deeply with past life experiences to improve our teaching practice. We understand that our past experiences have the power to shape our teaching practices now and in the future. Although these experiences occur both inside and outside the classroom, the principles that we endorse remain the same: collaborative and interactive teaching and learning, and acknowledging the children's and our own earlier learning and backgrounds.

Using the reading to learn methodology to teach isiZulu reading in a grade three class: a teacher’s self-study

“…The way a teacher was taught or trained to teach has the power to influence their present teaching practice and in the future (Kortjass, 2019;Mkhize-Mthembu et al, 2022). Thus, the drawings I used to recall my past experiences helped me learn about my positive and negative experiences and understand the kind of the teacher I am in the present and who I want to be in the future.…”