Table Of ContentTheorizing Curriculum Studies,
Teacher Education, & Research
through Duoethnographic Pedagogy
Edited by Joe Norris & Richard D. Sawyer
Theorizing Curriculum Studies, Teacher
Education, and Research through
Duoethnographic Pedagogy
Joe Norris
Richard D. Sawyer
Editors
Theorizing
Curriculum Studies,
Teacher Education,
and Research through
Duoethnographic
Pedagogy
Editor
Joe Norris Richard D. Sawyer
Brock University Washington State University
St Catharines, Ontario, Canada Vancouver
Portland, Oregon, USA
ISBN 978-1-137-51744-9 ISBN 978-1-137-51745-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-51745-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016957153
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C
ontents
1 Introduction: The Efficacy of Duoethnography
in Teaching and Learning: A Return to its Roots 1
Joe Norris and Richard D. Sawyer
2 Teaching through Duoethnography in Teacher Education
and Graduate Curriculum Theory Courses 15
Joe Norris, Richard D. Sawyer, and Sean Wiebe
3 Right and Wrong (and Good Enough): A Duoethnography
within a Graduate Curriculum Studies Course 39
Nat Banting and Stéphan De Loof
4 Dialogic Life History in Preservice Teacher Education 63
Rick Breault
5 Duoethnography as a Pedagogical Tool that Encourages
Deep Reflection 85
Hilary Brown and Joe Barrett
6 Exploring Duoethnography in Graduate Research Courses 111
Darren E. Lund, Kimberley Holmes, Aubrey Hanson, Kathleen Sitter,
David Scott, and Kari Grain
v
vi CONTENTS
7 Community, Identity, and Graduate Education:
Using Duoethnography as a Mechanism
for Forging Connections in Academia 131
Claudia Diaz and Kari Grain
Index 153
L f
ist of igures
Fig. 3.1 Nat’s model of creativity and rigor. Creativity emerges
from innovative use of rigorous tools 54
Fig. 3.2 Stéphan’s model of creativity and rigor. Rigor is in every
action and emerges from the work on problems 56
vii
CHAPTER 1
Introduction: The Efficacy
of Duoethnography in Teaching
and Learning: A Return to its Roots
Joe Norris and Richard D. Sawyer
Since its debut in 2003 (Norris & Sawyer, 2003), duoethnography has
become a widely known research methodology, through which people of
difference reconceptualize their histories of a particular phenomenon in
juxtaposition with one anOther. The first publication (Norris & Sawyer,
2004) examined sexual orientation but wasn’t even labeled as a duoeth-
nography until republished in 2015 (Sawyer & Norris, 2015a). After a few
initial conference presentations, colleagues in attendance requested more
details regarding Joe’s and Rick’s dialogic approach that resulted in a sec-
ond set of presentations discussing their emergent methodology. By 2005,
a name was created (Norris & Sawyer, 2005) and, over time, a series of
emergent tenets were articulated (Norris, 2008; Norris & Sawyer, 2012;
Sawyer & Norris, 2013, 2015b).
Between 2006 and the present, a cadre of nearly 50 colleagues joined Joe
and Rick, presenting their own duoethnographies on organized panels at
J. Norris (*)
Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada
R.D. Sawyer
Washington State University Vancouver, Vancouver, WA, USA
© The Author(s) 2017 1
J. Norris, Theorizing Curriculum Studies, Teacher Education,
and Research through Duoethnographic Pedagogy,
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-51745-6_1
2 J. NORRIS AND R.D. SAWYER
conferences, some of which were later published in an edited book (Norris,
Sawyer, & Lund, 2012). A second book (Sawyer & Norris, 2013), discuss-
ing the methodology in detail, was recipient of the American Educational
Research Association’s Division D’s 2015 Significant Contribution to
Educational Measurement and Research Methodology Award and a spe-
cial issue of the International Review of Qualitative Research (Norris &
Sawyer, 2015) contained additional duoethnographies. In addition to
the ever-expanding cohort of duoethnographers, researchers previously
unknown to Rick and Joe began employing duoethnography in their own
research (Farquhar, Fitzpatrick, & LeFevre, 2016; Grant & Radcliffe,
2015; Kidd & Finlayson, 2015; Schmidt & Gagné, 2014; Spencer &
Paisley, 2013). Favorable reviews appeared in a variety of journals (Brown,
2014; Chappel, 2013; Gómez, 2013; Latz & Murray, 2012; McClure,
2012; Sameshima, 2013) and others have referred to the methodology in
their publications (Davidson, 2010; Denzin, 2013; Ellis & Rawicki, 2013;
Reeves, Peller, Goldman, & Kitto, 2013). In just over ten years, duoeth-
nography has established itself as a respected research methodology.
This book, however, marks a departure from duoethnography’s origi-
nal research track, circling back to its pedagogical roots. One of the foun-
dational tenets of duoethnography is Pinar’s (1994) concept of currere,
which considers one’s life history, both in and outside of school, as a cur-
riculum. One’s environment, media, culture, family members, friends,
and experiences shape one’s beliefs and practices and by reexamining the
past through a present lens and the present though a past lens, one has
the potential to reconceptualize one’s perspectives and actions. Due to
its reflexive, transtemporal nature, currere can be a pedagogical act of
unlearning (McWilliam, 2005) as one restories self, creating epiphanies
that evoke new meanings of the past and revised visions of the future.
Duoethnography acts in the same way with the additional belief/
dimension that if one juxtaposes self with anOther (Levinas, 1984) who is
dissimilar than self, one can see self differently. Duoethnographers enter
into the process with the intent of learning from the dialogue. Such a
stance requires the ability to be reflective, being open to difference, the
courage to look at self critically, and a trust that anOther will respect
one’s ever-changing stance toward self and the world. Consequently, duo-
ethnographers do not merely report their stories; they interrogate them.
The quest is pedagogical by design. Duoethnography, then, is simulta-
neously both a research methodology and a pedagogical act with many
duoethnographers commenting on its transformational and therapeutic
nature. This collection discusses the teaching of such a process in research
INTRODUCTION: THE EFFICACY OF DUOETHNOGRAPHY IN TEACHING... 3
methods and curriculum theory courses and teacher education programs,
providing the voices of both instructors and students.
Some graduate research students claim that by studying duoeth-
nography they came to better understandings of research in general.
Duoethnography enabled them to enter into deep conversations with
anOther, gave them greater insights into their own positionality including
the complexities of bracketing out/in, made more explicit the researcher/
researched dichotomy moving away from the researched as object rela-
tionship, and enabled an appreciation of the power of critical storytelling.
Curriculum theory students also appreciated duoethnography’s abil-
ity “to examine [their] deep seated beliefs” (Lund et al., 2016, p. this
text) that fostered honest conversations with one anOther. They came to
understand and value the dialogic style of writing that evoked the readers’
stories. This approach exemplified a move away from a didactic, empty
vessel (Freire, 1986) form of delivery, providing a means to personally
interrogate the system in which they found themselves. It is an approach
that would live long after the course finished. Duoethnography is a per-
sonal form of curriculum theorizing.
Many students in preservice teacher education programs encounter
reflective practice for the first time. Being different than the traditional
expository essay, duoethnography can be daunting at first, due to its per-
sonal, reflective, and dialogic dimensions. But as the process unfolds, many
come to appreciate how much they have learned about self and changed in
the process. Duoethnography can be considered a pedagogical approach
that operationally addresses Cochran-Smith’s (2003) belief that:
the education of teacher educators in different contexts and at different entry
points over the course of the professional career is substantially enriched when
inquiry is regarded as a stance on the overall enterprise of teacher education
and when teacher educators inquire collaboratively about assumptions and
values, professional knowledge and practice, the contexts of schools as well
as higher education, and their own as well as their students’ learning. (p. 7)
Other previously cited texts expand on the tenets and features of duo-
ethnography including this book’s companion piece, Interdisciplinary
Reflective Practice through Duoethnography: Examples for Educators
(Sawyer & Norris, 2016) and Chap. 5 of this book (Brown & Barrett,
2016). Rather than reiterating what can be found elsewhere, the remain-
der of this introduction will take an internal hermeneutic approach
