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A Narrative Inquiry Into the Experiences of Participants in a High School Feminist English Language Arts Class

  • Author / Creator
    Glaves, Melanie
  • While many scholars have engaged with the benefits of feminist pedagogy in schools, most conceptualize feminist pedagogy in university classrooms as singular lessons, projects, units, or strategies in elementary and secondary schools. Through the relational research approach of Narrative Inquiry, this research explores the ways a Canadian public high school feminist English Language Arts course called “Girlhood” was experienced by two former students. The study also inquires into the researcher/teacher’s stories, which are interwoven with the former students’ experiences. The field texts for the study included conversation transcripts of conversations between each former student and the researcher. A narrative account was co-composed with each former student. By exploring their, and the researcher/teacher’s, stories of a feminist ELA course that was sustained over time, four narrative threads were discerned. This research shows how threads of family stories, feminist language, personal writing, and connecting personal and social worlds loop together with experiences in the high school feminist ELA course, which impact participants’ knowledge of themselves and the world. Examining the narrative threads within and across the stories of two students and the researcher/teacher created an opportunity to reflect on existing cultures, practices, and policies in high school as well as an opportunity to consider the impact of offering feminist ELA courses in a public secondary school context.

  • Subjects / Keywords
  • Graduation date
    Fall 2023
  • Type of Item
    Thesis
  • Degree
    Master of Education
  • DOI
    https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-byy9-4d42
  • License
    This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.