Fateful moments and the discourses of grief

This paper is concerned with the ways in which language functions in our making sense of death and loss, not only with the use of euphemisms for death, but also the wider discourses which frame meanings and understandings. Many bystanders and commentators on September 11, 2001, for example, likened the impact of the planes on the towers, and their subsequent collapse as “just like a movie ... I couldn’t believe it was happening”. From a culture whose primary experience of death and violence is mediated by film and television, the issue of how these experiences are communicated and understood – by the families of those who died, by the rescue workers and police, by the politicians and the military, and also importantly, by the media and their audiences – is crucial in understanding the ways in which what seem like natural responses are socially and culturally constructed.

There's no place like home : unhomely moments in three postcolonial picture books

One of the principal strands of postcolonial theory and critical practice is the interrogation of received versions of colonial history. This paper investigates the extent to which three contemporary picture books, Gavin Bishop's The House that Jack Built, John Marsden and Shaun Tan's The Rabbits, and Thomas King and William Kent Monkman's A Coyote Columbus Story, mobilise postcolonial strategies in their representations of place. In particular, it focuses on how postcolonial textuality unsettles and transgresses notions of "homeliness" in narratives involving the displacement of colonised and colonising peoples. As the shifting power relations of colonialism render unhomely what has previously been homely (especially for colonised peoples), so they involve a contrary move in which unhomely spaces are changed into simulacra of lost or abandoned homes. Drawing upon Walter Benjamin's formulation of materialist historiography, Homi Bhabha describes what he terms 'the unhomely moment' as that in which personal and psychic histories intersect with the violent dislocations of colonialism. This paper will argue that such unhomely moments shape the visual and verbal narratives of The House that Jack Built, The Rabbits and A Coyote Columbus Story, all of which deal with the trauma which occurs when cultures previously geographically and psychically distant are brought into close contact with each other. Written to and for children who are citizens of postcolonial cultures, these texts disclose the unease which persists in contemporary societies where colonial histories are rehearsed and revisioned. However, the paper will argue that the three texts position readers in quite different ways; for instance, while the verbal text of The Rabbits constructs an implied author capable of speaking for the colonised and offering readers a very circumscribed subject position, Thomas King's narrative in A Coyote Columbus Story engages in a dialogic playfulness which allows readers to adopt a variety of reading positions. For each text, some key representations of unhomely moments will be considered, and the paper will explore the extent to which they construct forms of temporality which negotiate the space between history and its significances within crosscultural and intercultural formations.

Defining moments in men's lives : a study of personal narratives

This study explores the defining moments in six men’s lives. The empirical dimension of the research is built around the personal narratives these men tell of their lives across a series of four interviews. The central research theme is the notion of the defining moment as a key element in the processes of establishing how men understand and interpret the events and incidents that have shaped their lives. In the context of this study, the defining moment is seen as the moment or period in time when an individual gives definition to a specific event or experience, as a transition point with (potentially) life-altering consequences. Some of the thematic structures presented include relationships with significant adults (parents, teachers), masculinity, self-harm, schooling, mental illness, isolation, loneliness, stress and relationships with peers. In my pursuit of a methodology that could accommodate the aims of this study, I explored the process of meaning through the qualitative paradigm. Drawing on the principles of qualitative research, as applied through narrative inquiry, I deployed a semi-structured interview format to collect the lived experiences of participants. By privileging the stories that individuals tell of their experiences, the narrative method recognises that data are inexorably located in the contextual and contingent. The experiences and narratives that are presented in this thesis are built around the authentic voices of participants. The study presents a warrant for working with men’s defining moments to disrupt, alter and redefine their attitudes and behaviours in order to improve their lives. Based on the insights gleaned through this study, I argue that there are defining times/points in people’s lives where their experiences can be life altering. When these experiences involve uncertainty, anxiety, stress and other pernicious effects, their longer-term consequences can be devastating. The study confirms existing research, that men are reluctant to seek help or reveal their insecurities during such times, therefore making them particularly vulnerable to defining moments. The conclusion of this thesis establishes some broad recommendations pertaining to working effectively with men and their defining moments. I focus particular attention on the place of schooling and education in helping individuals recognise and respond to the early symptoms of what is potentially a life-altering experience. Schools and, by association, teachers need to be actively and strategically involved in this process. To this end, I argue the need for targeted interventions that are both sensitive and timely. In their engagements with young males, parents, teachers, coaches and mentors need to be particularly attuned to their silent screams for help.

Activating teacher critical moments of learning through reflection

Mathematical modelling is one of the current focuses in the Singapore Mathematics Curriculum Framework. A multi-tiered teaching experiment using design research methodology was conducted to build teachers’ capacity in designing, facilitating, and evaluating learning during mathematical modelling tasks for Primary 5 students (aged 10-11). This paper illustrates the use of the retrospective analysis phase within design research cycles to activate a critical moment of teacher learning involving the interplay between questioning and listening during her first attempt at facilitating a mathematical modelling task. The teacher affirmed her deliberate focuses in the use of questions to (a) refine students’ models, (b) encourage articulation of student ideas in self-evaluation of the models, and (c) clarify and understand student reasoning. However, she also discovered the importance of interpretative listening in conjunction with questioning to promote more sophisticated mathematisation processes in model development. Implications from the use of the retrospective analysis phase on activating critical moments of learning during teacher education will be discussed.

Eureka moments in research : exploring abductive processes using four case examples

Abduction plays an important but often unacknowledged role in research – this regrettably leaving a large part of the research process hidden and unexamined (Levin-Rozalis 2000), particularly important innovative or creative components. This paper, firstly, introduces abduction and discusses some important concepts related to abduction and innovation. Secondly, it presents author’s own re-descriptions of previous research work. This new description seeks to describe perceived key “Eureka” moments in the research and thus make the creative components and abductive elements more visible. The paper demonstrates that much can be gained from opening a reflective space for the role of abduction in the research process.

Moments of disruption and the development of expatriate TESOL teachers

TESOL teachers, like mainstream teachers, often experience key incidents in their professional development. In expatriate TESOL, however, unfamiliar cultural and linguistic contexts may disrupt teachers' sense of both professional and personal identity. In this article, narratives constructed from interviews of teacher experiences document a selection of critical events and discuss their implications for professional development in TESOL. Teachers reported that deep reflection on their experiences led to a re-conceptualisation of their professional and cultural identities. The analysis of their reflections may have significant implications for TESOL work in the context of the global and the local. The narratives specifically explore teachers' initial experiences of readjustment, awareness of differences in expectations of their roles as teachers, the impact of being perceived as representatives of 'Western' culture, and their re-appraisal of the educational and cultural-linguistic values of 'home'.