Running Head: INTRODUCTION TO COMPREHENSIVE E-PORTFOLIO 1

Introduction to Comprehensive e-Portfolio

Introduction

“To teach is to touch and be touched” (van Manen, 2015, p. 103).

What does it mean to be a teacher? The most basic definition of a teacher is one who

teaches. Related words include educator - one who educates - and pedagogue - a teacher or

leader of children. But these definitions say little about what it means to be a teacher, what is the

lived experience of a teacher.

In The Tact of Teaching (1991) and Pedagogical Tact (2015), Max van Manen examines

the phenomenology of being a teacher. van Manen (2015) states that “pedagogy in the

contemporary sense has to do with the personal relational and ethical aspects of teaching” (p. 11)

and “the goal of pedagogical action is not a predetermined outcome but the caring action itself -

and this action is in service of the best interest of this child or these children” (p. 43). Pedagogy

comes from ancient Greek paidagog oí which referred to the household slave who attended a

school-aged boy, protecting him from danger and teaching him good conduct and manners

(Christes, 2006). Pedagogy also connects with education which has its roots in the terms educere

- to lead out of - and educare - to lead into (van Manen, 1991, pp. 37-38). Pedagogy requires

love and care for who the child is and who they may become, moral and ethical responsibility for

the child, and hope for the present and the future of the child. Carabajo (2012) writes:

there are still many children marked by misfortune and suffering who carry a world on

their shoulders that is too heavy for them to carry. We also know that there are teachers

who put themselves on the line to reach them and help them have a better future. They

are adults who actively work to maintain their hope knowing that, perhaps, they are the

only ones who have any hope for these children and young people. (p. 150)
INTRODUCTION TO COMPREHENSIVE E-PORTFOLIO 2

Teaching is a calling, and when we allow ourselves to hear the call of our students, when we give

them a space in which they can safely find their voice, we cannot help but answer that call with

pedagogical caring and hope.

Each semester, for the past few years, I have reserved some time at the end of the final

examination to say a farewell to my grade twelve students. Some of these students I will have

taught two or three times, some only once. I have limited time with them and so I try to make

the best of the time that we do have together. Many will have shared their stories and allowed me

into their inner lives. I always hope that my care for each of them shows, but I still feel it

important to leave them with a final note of appreciation for sharing their lives with me.

A Farewell to My Students

So this is it. The end of our time together and the last time I will have the chance to have

you as my students. As you leave this course, you will leave with a mark, a number. A number,

that like any other number, says something about you. It says that you came to English class and

you did some assessments. It might say that you did well. It might say that you worked hard. If

you did your best, you should definitely be proud of that number, regardless of what it is. But

there are so many things that that number does not say.

That number does not say that you come to school every day even though just getting out

of bed some mornings takes immense strength and courage. It does not say that you go out of

your way to make the people around you feel good about themselves. It does not say that you

battle depression or anxiety or addictions. That you have been the victim of bullying or abuse.

It does not say that you have suffered great loss. That you are lonely. That you have never

known how it feels to be praised.

INTRODUCTION TO COMPREHENSIVE E-PORTFOLIO 3

Many of you have shared your stories with me and I am genuinely grateful that you have

trusted me with your fears and regrets, your dreams and wishes. I wish I could make everything

better for all of you. I hope that you can at least leave school knowing that you have been

noticed and appreciated. There is so much good in each of you. I care about you. I worry about

you. I worry what will happen when you leave the relative safety of school and try to find your

way in a world which does not seem to be getting any better. I worry, and I hope.

I hope because I know how amazing you are capable of being. You are people who,

though still so young, have impressed me with your strength, your empathy, your generosity,

your loyalty, your determination, and your faith. You have overcome adversity and you face

unthinkable challenges with dignity and grace. You may have all started this semester as names

on my class list, but you have become my kids, and you are the reason I teach.

As I continue to study the phenomenology of pedagogy and the phenomenology of

storytelling in the classroom, I come to understand even more deeply the invaluable necessity of

care, vulnerability, and hope in my relationships with my students. Through the works of authors

like van Manen (2014)—phenomenology of pedagogy—, Sameshima (2009)—pedagogy of

parallax—, Chartrand (2012—Anishinaabe pedagogy—, Leggo (2004, 2008)—narrative

inquiry—, and Wiebe & Margolin (2012)—poetic inquiry—, I feel even more strongly pulled by

the calling of being a teacher, by the calling of my students to see them each for who they are

and for who they may become. As I move forward on my PhD journey, I also move forward on

my pedagogical journey. All things are connected; all things are rhizomatic.

Knowledge of Theory

I have chosen to use phenomenology as the theoretical framework for my PhD research.

Max van Manen (1990) defines phenomenology as a human science which “studies persons or
INTRODUCTION TO COMPREHENSIVE E-PORTFOLIO 4

beings that have consciousness and that act purposefully in and on the world.” It “aims at

explicating the meaning of human phenomena and at understanding the lived structures of

meaning” (p. 4). Phenomenology does not aim to ascertain factual truth, but rather to explore

possible truths.

Phenomenology is primarily a philosophic method for questioning, not a method for

answering or discovering or drawing determinate conclusions. But in this questioning

there exist the possibilities and potentialities for experiencing openings, understandings,

insights - producing cognitive and noncognitive or pathic perceptions of existentialities,

giving us glances of the meaning of phenomena and events in their singularity. (van

Manen, 2014, p. 29)

Through maintaining an attitude of openness and wonder about experiences and the world and

reflecting through writing on those experiences and things, the phenomenologist aims to gain

insights about the essence of phenomena: what it means to be or to experience a certain thing.

My research into phenomenology actually began prior to my first PhD course when I

collaborated on a paper on teacher risk-taking with Patrick Howard at Cape Breton University.

Patrick introduced me to Max van Manen through two of van Manen’s texts: Researching Lived

Experience (1990) focusing on phenomenology and The Tact of Teaching (1991) focusing on

pedagogy. I immediately connected with van Manen’s writings both in terms of the writing itself

and his views on pedagogy and pedagogical tact. Since then I have read van Manen’s The Tone

of Teaching (2002), Pedagogical Tact (2015), Writing in the Dark (2003), and Phenomenology

of Practice (2014), David Cerbone’s Understanding Phenomenology (2006), Martin Heidegger’s

Being and Time (1953/2010), David Jardine’s Speaking with a Boneless Tongue (1994), and

numerous articles on phenomenology. My reading in phenomenology will continue as I explore

INTRODUCTION TO COMPREHENSIVE E-PORTFOLIO 5

texts from other phenomenologists, including Husserl, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Gadamer, Merleau-

Ponty, and Bachelard.

The artifact which I have chosen to represent my competency in theoretical knowledge is

a comprehensive paper on phenomenology and pedagogy written for the Directed Studies course.

This paper considers how phenomenology operates as theory, methodology, and product of

research. As theory, phenomenology is a way of seeing the world from a state of wonder. It

“aims at explicating the meaning of human phenomena and at understanding the lived structures

of meaning” (van Manen, 1990, p. 4). It involves a turning back to find the essence of the pre-

reflective, primordial experience, though the researcher, in the turning back, is always too late

(van Manen, 2014). It is in this attempt to return to the essential structures of the phenomenon

that phenomenology serves also as methodology.

As methodology, phenomenology does not follow strictly defined steps or rules but is a

form of questioning. The basic method used in phenomenology is the reduction which consists of

two parts: the epoch, or negative reduction, and the positive reduction. The epoch involves a

bracketing of the things which obstruct the phenomenon—presuppositions, assumptions, taken-

for-grantedness (van Manen, 2014). The positive reduction is a return to the phenomenon,

involving imaging variations of the phenomenon until the point is reached at which it becomes

something else in order to discern its essential structure (van Manen, 2014). This is achieved

through a process of writing.

Phenomenology, as the paper states, is writing. But it is writing which requires finding

ways to say the unsayable. This requires a thickening of language which is often achieved

through a poeticizing of language which brings about the vocative and pathic dimensions of
INTRODUCTION TO COMPREHENSIVE E-PORTFOLIO 6

phenomenology (van Manen, 2014). Thus phenomenology also becomes product as it leads to a

phenomenological text.

This paper also examines the history of phenomenology from early philosophers such as

Husserl and Heidegger to a diversity of approaches taken by numerous phenomenologists,

including de Beauvoir, Bachelard, and Arendt, to name just a few. The primary theorist

examined in the paper, however, is Max van Manen. I selected van Manen not only because he

was the first phenomenologist to whom I was introduced, but also because he focuses on

phenomenology and pedagogy. As an educator, van Manen’s phenomenological writings on

pedagogy—The Tact of Teaching (1991), The Tone of Teaching (2002), and Pedagogical Tact

(2015)—resonated with my personal philosophy of teaching and learning. My reading in these

areas, as evidenced in the paper, also extended to other articles on pedagogical tact, pedagogical

seeing, pedagogical touch, and pedagogical hope.

The final sections of this paper consider the connections between phenomenology, poetic

inquiry, and narrative inquiry. All three of these theoretical frameworks involve particular ways

of seeing the world and particular ways of writing towards an understanding of the world. The

connections with these other theoretical frameworks are important as both poetry and narrative

are essential elements of my dissertation research and writing.

Research Knowledge

The artifacts I have chosen as evidence of my research knowledge also illuminate the

connections between phenomenology, narrative inquiry, poetic inquiry, and arts-based research.

The first artifact is a book chapter entitled “Always Becoming: Life as Self-Study” which is

being published in Fostering a Relational Pedagogy: Self Study as Transformative Praxis edited

by Ellyn Lyle (in press). This chapter phenomenologically analyses my growth as a pedagogue,
INTRODUCTION TO COMPREHENSIVE E-PORTFOLIO 7

looking particularly at how becoming a writer and sharing my stories has changed who and how

I am as a teacher. Sameshima (2007) writes, “the sharing of stories encourages reflexive

inquiries in ethical self-consciousness, enlarges paradigms of the ‘normative’, and develops

pedagogical practices of liberation and acceptance of diversity” (p. xi). Through writing and

sharing my stories with my students and thus becoming vulnerable with them, I have been able

to empower them to give voice to their own stories. And through listening to their stories, I have

learned to practice what van Manen (1991) calls “pedagogical thoughtfulness and tact” which are

practiced through “exercising a certain perceptive sensitivity as well as by practicing an active

and expressively caring concern for the child” (p. 172). The chapter goes on to analyse the power

of storytelling in the classroom, which has guided the focus of my research and the intent of my

dissertation. As Nairne and Thren (2017) write, “stories are how a person knows who they were,

who they are, and, potentially, who they will be” (p. 115). This is true for both my students and

for myself. Through stories, they are able to see their potential; through stories, I am able to

continue on my path of becoming.

The second artifact I have selected as representative of my research knowledge is a paper,

“A Sense of Wonder: An A/r/tographer’s Musings on Seeing and Being in the World,” accepted

for publication in the Canadian Review of Art Education special issue on poetry (revised and

submitted). This paper considers not only the connections between phenomenology and poetic

inquiry, but also the connections between poetic inquiry and arts-based research. Both poetry and

visual art require a certain kind of seeing. Burrows (2016) claims that poetry is a visual art, as it

“animates the way we learn to ‘see’ our world and come to see ‘in’ it by means of metaphor.

Poems thicken our visual experience … [and] enlarge and deepen our sense of this life through

the instrumentality of metaphor” (p. 46). Art and poetry, like phenomenological writings, open
INTRODUCTION TO COMPREHENSIVE E-PORTFOLIO 8

up new unexpected ways of seeing. Through art, both word and image, “the understanding is

made visible” (Sameshima, 2007, p. 267).

This particular paper is significant not only in its consideration of the connections

between phenomenology, poetic inquiry, and arts-based research, but also as representative

writing in all of these areas. This paper is a hybrid text consisting of phenomenological writing

including lived experience descriptions, poetry, and photography. It evidences my growth as a

phenomenological writer in the quality of the rich lived experience descriptions and in the

quality of the musings which demonstrate the questioning and reflective writing essential to

producing phenomenological texts. As such, this paper demonstrates my readiness to move onto

writing my dissertation as a critically-researched, comprehensive creative piece.

Professional Competencies

I have chosen two artifacts as evidence of my professional competencies. The first

artifact is my SSHRC Grant Application Program of Study. One of the reasons the SSHRC Grant

Application is important is that it demonstrates the skills I have gained in carefully crafting a

research question, determining the theoretical framework and methodology best suited to the

research question, and looking beyond my personal interest in the research question to the wider

implications within the field of education. This is the second year I have applied for a SSHRC

grant as I was unsuccessful last year. This revised grant application demonstrates my growth not

only in the technical aspects of grant writing but also significant development of my research

question and, particularly, its implications for the education system in Canada. Initially, I had

proposed a phenomenological research project about what it means to be a writer who teaches

writing. As I read further and spoke with others about my research, the question expanded to

look more generally at storytelling as relationship building in the classroom. Following the CSSE
INTRODUCTION TO COMPREHENSIVE E-PORTFOLIO 9

2018 Conference in Regina, where I had the opportunity not only to attend a number of sessions

on Indigenous education but also to meet with Cree Elders and share in their stories, I began to

read more extensively in the area of Indigenous storytelling methodologies (Chartrand, 2012;

Lawrence & Paige, 2016; Mills, Davis-Warra, & Anderson, 2016) and my research question

shifted again. My revised SSHRC application evidences this significant change as I now intend

to examine the questions: How can Indigenous storytelling methodologies impact transformation

in the English language arts class by empowering student agency and voice? And how might this

indicate the potential for Indigenous educational values and methods to change public education

in Canada? This research not only has the potential to effect significant change in the Canadian

education system but also to bring us closer to true reconciliation. The bibliography

accompanying the Program of Study also indicates the extent of my reading in the fields of

phenomenology, narrative inquiry, poetic inquiry, arts-based research, and Indigenous

storytelling methodologies.

The second artifact I have chosen to represent my professional competencies is my

proposal for the 2019 International Symposium on Poetic Inquiry to be held at Acadia University

in October 2019. While this proposal does not follow standard proposal format, I selected this

particular proposal because it resonates with the research questions I will be pursuing in my

dissertation with a focus on Indigenous languages, and because it demonstrates a thoughtful

approach to matching form and content in my writing. This, along with a proposal titled “leaves

evergreen / she walks / down the street: dialogic meaning from making” submitted for the

International Society for Education Through Art (InSEA) World Congress at UBC in July 2019

on which I will be co-author/co-presenter with Pauline Sameshima and Sean Wiebe, also

indicates my continued commitment to engagement with the larger academic community.

INTRODUCTION TO COMPREHENSIVE E-PORTFOLIO 10

Instructional Competencies

Over the past number of years, I have had the opportunity not only to teach high school

English, but also to work with teachers in a variety of capacities. I have presented to groups of

teachers a number of times in my roles as Curriculum Coach with the (then) English Language

School Board and English Department Head at Charlottetown Rural High School, and as a

member of a number of committees with the Department of Education and Early Childhood

Development. I have also engaged in team teaching with teachers at the junior high and high

school level, have been invited to teach in the English Methods course with the BEd program at

UPEI, and have taken on three UPEI practicing teachers over the past five years.

As representative of my professional competencies, I have selected a slideshow on the

Writer’s Workshop which I presented to high school English language arts teachers at a

Professional Development day. The Writer’s Workshop model (Kittle, 2008) has been essential

to my teaching practice for a number of years now. It provides an opportunity to use mentor

texts, to engage students in writing, and to write with and in front of students, all of which are

essential to building student writers. This presentation walks teachers through the Writer’s

Workshop process, beginning with a quickwrite to engage student thinking then taking them

through a mini-lesson on a particular writing technique using mentor texts leading to a writing

activity. The mentor texts used in the slideshow are pieces of my own writing, used intentionally

to demonstrate to teachers the value of sharing their own writing with their students. As

respected New Hampshire educator Penny Kittle (2008) states: “I believe you can’t tell kids how

to write; you have to show them what writers do. I believe you have to be a writer, no matter

how stumbling and unformed that process is for you; it’s essential to your work as a teacher of
INTRODUCTION TO COMPREHENSIVE E-PORTFOLIO 11

writing” (p. 8). The sharing of my writing, my stories, has become essential not just in my work

with my students but also in my work with other teachers.

Curriculum Vitae

I am still in the process of building my curriculum vitae; however, I believe that it clearly

demonstrates my readiness to move forward with my dissertation. My educational history

demonstrates my dedication to lifelong learning and my ability to perform academically at a high

level as evidenced by the awards and scholarships I have received. I am also continuing to

develop my professional competencies through teaching and educational leadership, numerous

professional presentations, and a growing list of publications. My literary memberships and

publications also demonstrate my capacity to handle the writing demands of a creative

dissertation.

Extras

I have chosen to include my Tri-Council Ethics form as an additional document. My

research will require a sensitivity and careful ethical consideration as I seek participation by

Elders and Indigenous educators. Because I will be an outsider not only as a researcher but also

as settler-descendant researching Indigenous storytelling methodologies and educational

practices, I will need to approach the research with humility, openness, and gratefulness,

understanding that though historically I stand in the position of power, here I am a learner

seeking wisdom from others who hold knowledge and who might teach me what I do not know.

Without this disruption of power, transformation and reconciliation are not possible.

Conclusion

I would like to end with a statement from The Truth and Reconciliation Committee’s

final report (2015), written in the words of Elders from Indigenous nations:
INTRODUCTION TO COMPREHENSIVE E-PORTFOLIO 12

As Canadians, we share a responsibility to look after each other and acknowledge

the pain and suffering that our diverse societies have endured—a pain that has been

handed down to the next generations. We need to right those wrongs, heal together, and

create a new future that honours the unique gifts of our children and grandchildren.

How do we do this? Through sharing our personal stories, legends and traditional

teachings, we found that we are interconnected through the same mind and spirit. Our

traditional teachings speak to acts such as holding one another up, walking together,

balance, healing and unity. Our stories show how these teachings can heal their pain and

restore dignity. We discovered that in all of our cultural traditions, there are teachings

about reconciliation, forgiveness, unity, healing and balance.

We invite you to search in your own traditions and beliefs, and those of your

ancestors, to find these core values that create a peaceful harmonious society and a

healthy earth. (p. 225)

If we are to heal and move forward, individually and collectively, we need to share stories that

matter.

For the sake of our children we want to make this world a better place to live.
(van Manen, 1991, p. 212).
INTRODUCTION TO COMPREHENSIVE E-PORTFOLIO 13

References

Burrows, M. (2016). Seeing through words: Poetry as visual art. Arts, 28(1). 39-48).

Carabajo, R. A. (2012). Pedagogical hope. Phenomenology & Practice, 6 (2), 136-152.

Cerbone, D. R. (2006). Understanding phenomenology. Stocksfield, UK: Acumen Publishing

Limited.

Chartrand, R. (2012). Anishinaabe pedagogy. Canadian Journal of Native Education 35(1), 144-

221.

Christes, J. (2006). Paidagogos. In H. Cancik & H. Schneider (Eds.), Brill’s New Pauly (C. F.

Salazar, Trans.) Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e903770

Heidegger, M. (2010). Being and time. (J. Stambaugh & D. J. Schmidt, Trans.). Albany, NY:

State University of New York Press. (Original work published 1953)

Jardine, D. W. (1994). Speaking with a boneless tongue. Bragg Creek, AB: Makyo Press.

Kittle, P. (2008). Write beside them: Risk, voice, and clarity in high school writing. Portsmouth,

NH: Heinemann.

Lawrence, R. L. & Paige, D. S. (2016). What our ancestors knew: Teaching and learning through

storytelling. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education 149, 63-72. DOI:

10.1002/ace.20177

Leggo, C. (2004). Narrative inquiry: Honouring the complexity of the stories we live. Brock

Education, 14(1). 97-111.

Leggo, C. (2008). Narrative inquiry: Attending to the art of discourse. Language and Literacy,

10 (1), 1-21.
INTRODUCTION TO COMPREHENSIVE E-PORTFOLIO 14

Mills, K. A., Davis-Warra, J., Sewell, M., & Anderson, M. (2016). Indigenous ways with

literacies: Transgenerational, multimodal, placed, and collective. Language and

Education 30(1), 1-21. DOI: 10.1080/09500782.2015.1069836

Nairne, D. C., & Thren, J. (2017). Storytelling: A unique approach to developing partnerships

with students. The Vermont Connection, 38, 115-122.

Sameshima, P. (2007). Seeing red: A pedagogy of parallax. Youngstown, NY: Cambria Press.

Sameshima, P. (2009). Stop teaching! Hosting an ethical responsibility through a pedagogy of

parallax. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 6(1), 11-18. DOI:

10.1080/15505170.2009.10411719

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (2015). Canada’s residential schools:

Reconciliation: The final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

(Vol. 6). Montreal, PQ: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

van Manen, M. (1990). Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive

pedagogy. London, ON: The Althouse Press.

van Manen, M. (1991). The tact of teaching: The meaning of pedagogical thoughtfulness.

London, ON: The Althouse Press.

van Manen, M. (2002). The tone of teaching: The language of pedagogy (2nd ed.). London, ON:

The Althouse Press.

van Manen, M. (2003). Writing in the dark: Phenomenological studies in interpretive inquiry.

New York, NY: Routledge.

van Manen, M. (2014). Phenomenology of Practice. New York, NY: Routledge.

van Manen, M. (2015). Pedagogical tact: Knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do.

New York, NY: Routledge.

INTRODUCTION TO COMPREHENSIVE E-PORTFOLIO 15

Wiebe, S. & Margolin, I. (2012). Poetic consciousness in pedagogy: An inquiry of contemplation

and conversation. in education, 18(1), 23-36.