Storytelling as an epistemic framework for composers of social justice education

As the need for social justice education becomes more pronounced, there is also a need to better understand what defines social justice education in practice and how it is shaped and revised in real-time. This dissertation study considered what is gained from viewing instructors as composers of social justice education and as agents who employ composition as a tool to teach social justice. Using transliteracies as a theoretical framework and narrative inquiry as a methodological lens, this case study traced social justice teacher educators’ literate practices in an advanced composition course across various contexts (physical and virtual). The findings reveal the ways instructors took up storytelling, beyond a tool of communication, as an epistemic framework that situated knowledge as experiential, relational and embodied. This stance was not simply about asserting the value of stories or the act of storytelling, but about situating knowledge as “storied.” This research also illuminates the relationship between this epistemic stance and the unique mobilities in instructors’ literate planning practices. It examines the tensions and concerns revealed by instructors as they co-narrated what it means to write for and about social justice. Ultimately, I highlight the implications of this work for future approaches to teaching and researching the role of composition in social justice education.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Curriculum and Instruction

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• West, Autumn J

Contributors dc:contributor

• Mccarthey, Sarah
• Prior, Paul
• Bresler, Liora
• Gonzalez Ybarra, Monica

• social justice education, literacy, writing studies, teacher education, storytelling

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2021 Autumn West

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/112985

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/112985