Mark D. Vagle

Living Contradictions and Working for Change Toward a Theory of Social Class–Sensitive Pedagogy

This essay describes a vision of social class–sensitive pedagogy aimed at disrupting endemic classism in schools. We argue persistent upward mobility discourses construct classist hierarchies in schools and classroom practice and are founded on misunderstandings of work, lived experiences of social class, and the broader social and economic context of the United States and the world. Educators may unwittingly alienate the very students they hope to inspire, cause for serious inquiry into what a social class–sensitive pedagogy might entail. The manuscript highlights five interrelated principles that provide insights to what research tells us and how it can be used in K–12 and teacher education.

Validity as intended: ‘bursting forth toward’ bridling in phenomenological research

In this theoretical manuscript, I use Sartre’s image of intentionality as a ‘bursting forth toward’ to describe what it was like for me to bridle my pre‐understandings and developing understandings as I studied moments middle grades teachers recognize and respond when students do not understand something during instruction. In doing so, I suggest that throughout the study I consistently found myself in resistance to a giving‐finding meaning dualism that divides the two primary approaches to conducting phenomenological research – interpretive (from Heidegger) and descriptive (from Husserl). To this end, I theorize that validity in phenomenological research might best be described through intentionality, because the validity will always move with and through the researcher’s intentional relationship with the phenomenon – not simply in the researcher, in the participants, in the text, in their power positions, but in the dynamic intentional relationships that tie participants, the researcher, the produced text, and their positionality together.

Re‐framing Schön's call for a phenomenology of practice: a post‐intentional approach

In this article, I critique and re‐frame Schöns call for a phenomenology of practice and then articulate what I term a ‘post‐intentional phenomenological research approach’ – an approach which brings post‐structural thinking to a foundational philosophical notion in phenomenology, intentionality. The article closes by introducing a five‐component research process that researchers can use to contribute to this re‐framed phenomenology of practice.

Remaining Skeptical: Bridling for and with One Another

In this article, we argue that being our own best critics is a process by which we commit to interrogating what we know (or think we know) as we design a study. We situate the idea of bridling within the philosophical and methodological conversation of a more traditional notion in phenomenological research, bracketing, and then within Macbeth’s three expressions of reflexivity in qualitative research. Based on our analysis of some of our methodological decisions, we articulate four pivotal issues we faced. We close by making specific suggestions for faculty and graduate students individually and as research teams to consider as they strive to be their own best critics in their research.

Dignity and Democracy: An Exploration of Middle School Teachers' Pedagogy.

Abstract In an effort to learn more about pedagogy in the action present moments of teaching and in response to Schön’s (1987) call for a “phenomenology of practice,” this phenomenological study explored the pedagogy of 18 middle school teachers. The researcher selected participants with a purposive sampling procedure. Participants taught for at least three years in a middle grades school—defined as any school that includes students 10-14 years of age and employs at least two structures in support of middle school philosophy. Fourteen participants chose to participate in a conversational interview about moments they recognized and responded to when a student did not understand something during an instructional activity. Four participants chose to write a lived-experience description of this same moment. The researcher identified meanings through phenomenological readings of the data. Meanings in this paper focus on the response portion of the experience and are discussed using Beane’s (1997) notion of high pedagogy. Findings indicate that responses are experienced in continuous recognition-response processes, which often include a positioning that takes place prior to recognition. Furthermore, responses have a certain feel or manner, and are based on the teacher’s perception of how a student will feel as a result of the response.

Curriculum as post-intentional phenomenological text: working along the edges and margins of phenomenology using post-structuralist ideas

In this article, I experiment along the edges and margins of the phenomenological notion of intentionality using the Deleuzoguattarian concepts of multiplicity and line of flight. Working from Pinar et al.’s anticipation that phenomenology would undergo discursive shifts tending towards the post-structural, I theorize curriculum as post-intentional phenomenological text. To illustrate, I use this post-intentional figuration to theorize some of my recent professional development work with teachers and argue that post-intentional phenomenological theorizing might be useful for curriculum theorists.

Lessons in contingent, recursive humility

In this article, the author argues that critical work in teacher education should begin with teacher educators turning a critical eye on their own practices. The author uses Leskos conception of contingent, recursive growth and change to analyze a lesson he observed as part of a phenomenological study aimed at understanding more about what it is like to cultivate tact in teaching practice. The author discusses two sets of practical considerations for teacher educators—one centering on times teacher educators are struck by something when observing teacher candidates and the other on times teacher educators miss something. This analysis suggests that preparing critical middle grades literacy teachers demands that the teacher educator proceed with a healthy dose of contingent, recursive humility.

Grafting the Intentional Relation of Hermeneutics and Phenomenology in Linguisticality

This article seeks to reposition two philosophies central to qualitative research: hermeneutics and phenomenology from their current location in the interpretive traditions to one closer to the critical and radical traditions we believe are more congruent. We hope to show that these philosophies are most productive for qualitative research when considered as “grafted,” such as in Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics. By deepening two of these philosophies’ central constructs, intentionality and linguisticality, we not only make their ungrafting improbable, but also show the centrality of this hyphenated philosophy to qualitative research.

The Precarious Nature of Social Class-Sensitivity in Literacy: A Social, Autobiographic, and Pedagogical Project

Abstract Using Maurice Merleau‐Ponty’s (1947/1964) phenomenological notion of the threads of intentionality that tie subject and object together meaningfully and Pierre Bourdieu’s (1986, 2000; Bourdieu & Waquant, 1992) reflexive sociology and constructs of habitus, field, capital, and nomos, we theorize social class‐sensitivity in literacy education as a social, autobiographic, and pedagogical project; a recognition of the powerful unnamed context of middle‐class normality; and an illumination of the precarious ways in which working‐class and poor students are positioned in schools. We assume that although issues related to race, gender, and sexuality intersect in complex ways with class, social class issues in classroom pedagogy are too often ignored and undertheorized. Therefore, there is a need to spend concerted time considering social class specifically. We close by asking pedagogues to think seriously about the reality that working‐class and poor students enter classrooms each day saturated in precariousness; to not label students and families as the problem; and to be the ones to take responsibility for alleviating the precarious positions in which working‐class and poor students and families live while in educational institutions.

Entangling a Post-Reflexivity Through Post-Intentional Phenomenology

In this article, we amplify the post in post-intentional phenomenology to demonstrate some of the unique possibilities this methodology might afford qualitative researchers interested in experimenting with entangled connections among seemingly disparate philosophies, theories, and methodologies. Specifically, we extend our amplification to the concept of reflexivity by conceptualizing an entangled post-reflexivity as a generative methodological move in post-intentional phenomenology specifically and in qualitative research more generally. Through three provocations, we experiment with how the concept of reflexivity might become, leading us to theorize an entangled post-reflexivity that aims to incite methodological movements and possibilities for qualitative inquiry.