Lynnette Mawhinney

Coping with the crickets: a fusion autoethnography of silence, schooling, and the continuum of biracial identity formation

This study explores biracial identity development in the adolescent years through fusion autoethnography. Using an ecological model of biracial identity development, this study illustrates how family, peers, and school curricula validate and reject racial self-presentations. We pay specific attention to the different forms of silence (i.e. “crickets”) that teachers and peers deploy as tactics of rejection and how racially coded artifacts such as hip-hop culture and Black Liberation texts function as validations of racial self-presentations. Overall, this study helps researchers and practitioners to understand the fluidity of biracial and multiracial identity development as it relates to everyday school spaces and processes.

Reconsidering Rapport with Urban Teachers: Negotiating Shifting Boundaries and Legitimizing Support.

This paper addresses Lincolns [2010. ‘What a long, strange trip its been … ’: Twenty-five years of qualitative and new paradigm research. Qualitative Inquiry 16, no. 1: 3–9] call for greater attention to the question of rapport in qualitative research through a reflexive examination of researcher–participant relationships in two qualitative studies with urban teachers. In these projects, one a series of case studies and the other an ethnography, we as researchers found ourselves offering various forms of support to struggling teachers in challenging circumstances. These close relationships provided insider data but also raised ethical questions about the boundaries of the Self–Other conjunction. We present three dilemmas from our research in which we struggled to identify the boundaries of support, validation, and friendship in qualitative inquiry. We conclude by re-framing the static notion of rapport as a dynamic and shifting negotiation between a researcher and a participant and expanding the definition of rapport to include legitimate means of support.

The apprenticeship of observation in career contexts: a typology for the role of modeling in teachers’ career paths

This article extends the literature on teachers’ career paths by attending to the experiences of educators when they were students in secondary classrooms. Grounded in the perspective that biography is central to teaching, we investigate undergraduate pre-service teachers’ educational experiences, views on teaching and learning, and professional plans. We draw upon life history interviews with 40 prospective teachers at three institutions across Pennsylvania, USA. We find that past educational experiences are intricately connected with career choice, intended professional path, and pedagogical focus. This paper identifies and discusses three forms of modeling – disciplinary, mentoring, and empowering – which influence pre-service teachers in powerful and enduring ways. These forms of modeling expand our understanding of teachers’ career intentions and apply the apprenticeship of observation to planned career paths.

Re-examining participatory research in dropout prevention planning in urban communities

This paper explores the concept of what a community-based participatory dropout prevention planning process might entail. Specifically, it looks at a year-long research project that brought together formerly incarcerated school non-completers, researchers, and local policy-makers (stakeholders) to address low high-school completion rates in the community. Using our own project as a case study, we reflect on the challenges and promises that emerged when the knowledge of adults in urban communities, who themselves often did not complete school, become central to dropout prevention idea generation, strategy development, and decision-making processes. We re-examine the ‘participatory’ process using participatory action research principles as an analytical lens focusing on three central concepts: control, collaboration, and commitment.

Being and Becoming a Teacher: How African American and White Preservice Teachers Envision Their Future Roles as Teacher Advocates

This article captures the life histories and professional futures of preservice teachers at three institutions of higher education. In this article, we focus on the experiences and expectations of 4 preservice teachers. We find that, although African American and White preservice teachers both see themselves as advocates for their students, they envision different approaches to advocacy and their agency along racial lines. African American preservice teachers envision advocacy as serving as role models for their future students, while White preservice teachers advocate for their students through their instructional actions in the classroom. This study complicates ideas of race, agency, and teacher advocacy.

Exploring the interplay of cultural capital, habitus, and field in the life histories of two West African teacher candidates

This paper captures the life histories of two West African pre-service teachers pursuing their education in the United States. Based on a larger study examining the life histories of 45 undergraduate pre-service teachers, these narratives focus specifically on international student experiences in the US. Grounded in Bourdieu’s theory of habitus, capital, and field, the life histories of Bakar and Selma illustrate how their capital and habitus become contingent on the field(s) (i.e. sites, time, and agents within a specific context) in which they are situated. The narratives of Bakar and Selma captured their early educational experiences, teacher preparation practices, and future possibilities as they moved in and out of different fields where the exchange of capital occurred, which then led to restructuring and/or de-valuerization of certain habitus. The experiences of Bakar and Selma heighten our awareness of the capital and habitus deployed in a variety of contexts – fields – in the US and elsewhere. We conclude by incorporating discussion focused on working with international teacher candidates.

A requirement and challenge of joke-ability in humor researcher

Purpose – With particular reference to qualitative humor research, this paper aims to look at fieldwork from a new angle. The purpose of this paper is to address humor research foci by completing a fusion autoethnographic analysis of how lead author used humor to interact with the participants. This analysis outlines the two examples of joke-ability; specifically self-deprecating humor and more generally attempts to blend in. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on fusion autoethnography where Author 2 actively worked to help Author 1 push deeper into her use of humor and its historical context within her life. This created a dialogue to deepen the self-analysis on Author 1’s humor methodology. Findings – The use of humor, by humor researchers, may be of particular importance if the researched groups, society, or nation values humor in both formal and informal contexts. Researcher’s humor can be a spontaneous and dynamic way of learning and engaging with the researched environment. Originality/value – This paper aims to be a starting point for the discussion about the understudied issues of place and role of the use of humor by a humor researcher, and the challenges of conducting humor research within an educational context. The innovative fusion autoethnographic analysis helps to reflect upon researcher’s role and behavior. The study contributes to humor research methodology by exploring the effects of researcher’s use of humor on both the researcher-participant relationship and the data.

The Creation of Restorative Places for Teachers in an Urban School

This article chronicles a two-year ethnography focused on teachers’ restorative places. Restorative places, in school contexts, are where teachers congregate with colleagues for solace during the workday. In this article, I outline teachers’ perceptions at one urban school, from their own voice, of how restorative places are created, while also exploring their thoughts on the interactions and relationships developed within these places. This understanding can help guide teachers and administrators to establishing restorative places that are best suited to support teachers’ professional needs.

I Just Feel So Guilty: The Role of Emotions in Former Urban Teachers’ Career Paths

This article explores the dynamic structures of emotions used by former urban teachers as they negotiated the challenges of the profession. Drawing from a national sample of 25 former urban teachers, this article looks closely at the lives of two teachers who taught in urban intensive school districts. Specifically, the piece captures the emotional aftermath of leaving teaching around two themes: (a) recognition of guilt and (b) continued advocacy for their students. We found that teacher leavers continue to struggle emotionally with their choice to leave the classroom while remaining committed to affecting change in the educational system.

Insights from Teacher Leavers: Push and Pull in Career Development.

Abstract This article examines the career pathways of US teacher leavers, individuals who have voluntarily left classroom teaching prior to retirement. Based on the perspective that teachers construct their own career pathways through an ongoing negotiation among intrinsic and extrinsic factors, this research captures the experiences of 24 teacher leavers from geographically diverse regions of the United States. Using life history interviews, this study inquires into individuals’ experiences before, during, and after classroom teaching. Unexpectedly, only one of the 24 individuals initially intended to enter teaching. Data also indicate that teachers’ career pathways were shaped by dynamics pushing and pulling their careers into and out of the classroom. These life history interviews suggest that teachers were pushed and pulled into teaching, pushed and pulled out of teaching, and pushed and pulled around their passions. The trajectories of these teacher leavers, who have now moved into fields as diverse as non-classroom education, medicine, government, and caregiving, suggest important theoretical and practical implications for understanding and shaping teachers’ careers in today’s workforce.