Frank McCourt’s Teacher Man: A Novel Approach to Teacher Learning and Professional Development

The purpose of this research was to investigate how stories can be a learning tool to help teachers make sense of and learn from their own stories of teaching. The participants in this study were teachers enrolled in a graduate level course.  Frank McCourt’s novel, Teacher Man acted as a stimulus, s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Brock education 2009-07, Vol.19 (1), p.1
Main Author: Schulz, Renate
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Learning
McCourt, Frank
Novels
Professional development
Teacher education
Writers
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The purpose of this research was to investigate how stories can be a learning tool to help teachers make sense of and learn from their own stories of teaching. The participants in this study were teachers enrolled in a graduate level course.  Frank McCourt’s novel, Teacher Man acted as a stimulus, springboard and guide for class discussions and for teachers writing their own story of teaching. My mode of inquiry included collecting the teachers’ written responses to class readings, noting their oral responses during class discussions, asking them to complete a short questionnaire, and following up with a taped focus group three months after the completion of the course. By reading, hearing and discussing the stories of others, teachers came to recognize the power of stories.  Writing their own stories helped them to understand their own practice better.
ISSN:1183-1189
1183-1189
DOI:10.26522/brocked.v19i1.122