Auto/biography and Pedagogy: Memory and Presence in Teaching (Complicated Conversation)

In the tradition of educational narrative inquiry, this book explores diverse ways of thinking, writing and theorizing from auto/biographic experience, in language that is rooted in practice yet challenges the authoritative discourses of educational policy, theory and research. The book moves from first to third person accounts and from personal and family stories to narratives of teachers and teacher educators in the contested, multicultural environment of Israel. It highlights the multi-voiced, embodied lives of Israeli teachers from many cultures and identities and engages with literature around memory and embodiment, imagination, place and presence in teaching. The book will interest researchers in curriculum studies, teaching and teacher education, as well as scholars interested in issues of memory in historical and contemporary contexts.

Freema Elbaz-Luwisch (PhD in educational theory from the University of Toronto) serves on the University of Haifa’s Faculty of Education. She is the author of two previous books and numerous articles and the co-author (with Xin Li and Carola Conle) of Shifting Polarized Positions: A Narrative Approach in Teacher Education (Peter Lang, 2009).