Module Specifications..
Current Academic Year 2023 - 2024
Please note that this information is subject to change.
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Coursework Only |
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Description This module invites BEd Human Development students to examine the importance of imagination and narrative in philosophical thought and for their pedagogical practice. This module builds on BEd 1 st year foundation studies to explore how the self (as child, parent/guardian, teacher) can be understood and how pedagogies informed by imagination and narrative, allow for and/or call for, distinctive approaches to practice and self-understanding. The module begins with an examination of the role of imagination in philosophy of education, with reference to Dewey (1916, 1934), Nussbaum (1996, 2008), Greene (1978, 1995) and Egan (1988, 2015). This first topic invites students to consider the function of imagination as an activity or aspect of agency, as a means to encounter possibility and opportunity, and as necessary in negotiating our dependency and shared world with others. This second theme considers narrative approaches in psychology (McAdams 1993, 2001, 2013,, McLean 2010, 2015) and philosophy (Ricoeur 1988, 1990, Schechtman 2011, 2014, Lindemann, 2001, 2014) to challenge influential approaches to child development and identity. Narrative approaches are introduced to emphasise the significance of others, both in one’s immediate life and those in society, to provide story types, genres and modes, through which individual’s make sense of their life. Furthermore, narrative is introduced as providing a mediating function between individuals, emphasising how narrative practices of ‘holding and letting go’ allow for some identities to be acknowledged and respected, while others are denied recognition or acceptance. This discussion of narrative foregrounds a turn to the importance of narratives in teachers’ lives, introducing the turn to narrative inquiry and the attending to the personal/provisional selves in teacher education (Clandinin and Connelly 1995). Students are invited to examine educational discourses, including reflective practice, to identify how novice teachers are invited to tell stories about their practice and development. Orientated to the NCCA (2020) Draft Primary Curriculum Framework, the third theme of the module looks at the space of narrative practices in responding to curricular principles and competencies. Students are invited to consider i) the roles of stories and narratives in shaping a child’s school identity and the importance of opportunities to challenge dominant or problematic identities (Winslade and Monk, 2006), ii) the stories/perspectives silenced and marginalized in classrooms and the importance of counter stories to question excluding narratives in the classroom (Strong-Wilson 2021) and iii) how storytelling and narrating in class can allow students to see their lives in an environment (world), in relationships and relationally (with others) and in private (self), and contribute to spaces for exploration and intentionality to be facilitated (Ladson-Billings 1995). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Learning Outcomes 1. Recognise and understand how different approaches to imagination contribute to and inform different approaches to education and childhood. 2. Develop an insight on the importance of imagination as a means to pedagogically disrupt consensus, encounter difference, cultivate empathy and expand possibilities. 3. Distinguish and analyse narrative approaches to identity and selfhood, showing an understanding of the importance afforded to others, institutions and time. 4. Identify and examine educational practices and discourses role in socialising teachers in to regimes of meaning making and interpretation and understand the challenges these present to teacher agency. 5. Identify and analyse opportunities in pedagogical practice to work with students through narrative approaches to enact inclusive teaching to support agency. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml |
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Indicative Content and Learning Activities
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Indicative Reading List
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Other Resources None | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Programme or List of Programmes
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