O'Grady, Grace (2014) Constructing Identities with Young People: Rethinking Educational Practice. A Performance Piece. In: Equality and Curriculum in Education. A Collection Of Invited Essays. National University of Ireland Maynooth, pp. 21-36.
Preview
GOG_constructing.pdf
Download (8MB) | Preview
Abstract
One of the aims of Irish Education is “to nurture a sense of personal
identity...” (Charting our Education Future, 1995, p.10). Thomson and Hall (2008) confirm that
schools are places where children and teenagers are continually engaged in identity
formation, but where formal opportunities to play with and reflect on this subject are not
available to them (p.148). Personal and Social Development Programmes are cited as far back
as the Role1 document and the Guidelines2 document as an essential part of guidance provision
in second level schools in Ireland. To date, this aspect of guidance has not been developed as
a curricular programme. While a focus on identity formation is part of the SPHE curriculum
at both Junior and Senior Cycle, this programme and personal development programmes in
education generally (Ryan, 1997) are informed by humanistic conceptions of the person and
therefore fall prey to much of the critique of, what is referred to in some UK publications as,
the ‘therapeutic culture’ of schools (Ecclestone and Hayes, 2009, Furedi, 2004, Craig, 2007);
a culture that can remain blind to the constitutive power of discourse.
This paper offers a participants’ perspective on the pedagogical work I carried out as part of
a larger CAP (Creative Analytical Practice/Processes) ethnographic study, using arts-based
activities to provide a creative space for a group of Irish Senior Cycle students to explore
narratives of self/identity (O’ Grady, 2012). I firstly give a brief overview of that work with
the young people situating it in the research context. I then present the voices of the students
as they dialogue with their teachers at an exhibition of their creative artefacts. In this
‘Performance’ there is an opening up to new discursive school practice so I title it, ‘Rethinking
Educational Practice’ and close the paper with musings about the age old ‘trickster’, who has
been reclaimed as a metaphor of transformation in our classrooms (Conroy & Davis, 2002).
Item Type: | Book Section |
---|---|
Keywords: | Constructing Identities; Young People; Rethinking Educational Practice; Performance Piece; |
Academic Unit: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Education |
Item ID: | 5781 |
Depositing User: | Grace O'Grady |
Date Deposited: | 09 Feb 2015 12:30 |
Publisher: | National University of Ireland Maynooth |
Refereed: | Yes |
URI: | https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/5781 |
Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
Repository Staff Only (login required)
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year