ERIC Number: ED644152
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 174
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: 979-8-8193-7632-4
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Laboring for the Motherland: A Mother-Artist-Researcher-Teacher's Reconfiguration of the State-Sponsored Transnational Teacher
Rebekah R. Gordon
ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Michigan State University
This arts-based inquiry explores historical and contemporary configurations of state-sponsored transnational teachers, or those who teach overseas in programs that are financially and/or programmatically supported by their home government. In the U.S., some examples of state-sponsored transnational teaching programs include the Peace Corps, the Fulbright Specialist Program, and the English Language Fellow Program. Standing on feminist grounding, I draw upon maternal concepts from the field of mother(hood) studies to frame my exploration and to interrogate and disrupt the patriarchal systems in which state-sponsored transnational teaching is situated. More specifically, I extend a/r/tographic methodology to include my identifications and embodied perspectives as a mother-artist-researcher-teacher. My proposed methodology of m/a/r/tography affords me the opportunity to think intergenerationally about the ways that orientations, collective body memory, family histories, and national legacies relevant to state-sponsored transnational teaching are passed down. By using epistolary narrative and creative non-fiction, I reflect on my own experiences as a mother, as a daughter, and as a former state-sponsored transnational teacher who labored for her motherland. To analyze these personal experiences, I adopt a diffractive approach in which these experiences are viewed through one another as well as through additional sources of data, including interviews with other state-sponsored transnational teachers, letters from my mother, photographs and images, poetry, film, children's literature, and other forms of scholarship. The use of a diverse and wide-ranging set of scholarship is an attempt to not only spark creative connections between seemingly disparate sources of data but also inspire more accessible and humanizing ways of doing research and re-imagining (teacher) education that welcomes processes of re/dis/orientation. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
Descriptors: Mothers, Artists, Researchers, Teachers, Global Approach, Overseas Employment, State Programs, Foreign Workers, Exchange Programs, Intercultural Programs, International Cooperation, Self Concept, Teaching (Occupation), Personal Narratives, Content Analysis, Educational Research
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Publication Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A