Writing to reclaim self: The use of narrative in teacher education

Abstract Authoring provides a powerful paradigm for promoting and studying teacher thinking. Following Pessoa and Bakhtin, I am exploring the development of my own thinking in terms of voices expressing an expanding community of selves. “Voice” is an especially relevant construct in the struggle for representation in teacher education. The third person academic voice is usually preferred to that of the first person self. Autoethnography helps reclaim this previously marginalized aspect of self, making the personal a central text. I revisit one of my published papers to provide second thoughts about it and myself. By embracing the interplay of contrary voices, I am learning to still my over-dominant professor voice and to speak for my self. Narrative self-inquiry helps us to construct a new community of selves which takes us beyond existing levels of development.