Phenomenological explication as teaching: an examination of lived experience notes taken while teaching secondary English language arts
Subject
Abstract
How one teaches English language arts depends on one's experiences. My tenure teaching English was predicated on the model of how I was taught when I was in high school, teaching methods I learned during my professional year in education in university, and the language and literature theories I was exposed to in my undergraduate degree. It is the latter that had the most impact on my teaching practice. For this thesis I took the opportunity to review my 11-year proactive teaching secondary English language arts to examine the degree to which my understanding of post-structuralism and phenomenology underpins the practice I established. This thesis is also my effort to engage in a phenomenological research method. I conclude that teaching with a mind to phenomenology greatly influenced the way taught, what I taught, and the way I assessed student learning, and that it had a positive effect of their learning.