Empowering Through Connection: Storying Lived Experiences Through the Teaching of English Literature

Abstract

This thesis examines the pedagogical perspectives and choices of one educator in her implementation of The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9 and 10: English, 2007 (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2007) through the teaching of Lori Lansens’ (2020) novel, The Mountain Story, within the English at the Grade 10 Academic level (ENG2D) curriculum. By invoking a postcolonial lens, I analyse how the novel is framed, represented, and pedagogically discussed through the inclusion, exclusion, and/or general discussion of minoritized representations that can be found within the Canadian sociocultural landscape. Through the implementation of narrative inquiry as the methodological framework within this case study, I provide a snapshot of the ways in which teachers seek to empower students and student representations through literature explored within the classroom, contextualized by the lived experiences and values that influence the educator’s pedagogical practices, as well as the acknowledgement of my experiences as a racialized woman that informs my lens as the researcher. I situate The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9 and 10: English, 2007 with a focus on the Grade 10 English curriculum (ENG2D), provide an overview on how the educator has structured their ENG2D course, and review how the educator analyses Lansens’ (2020) novel within this course. Additionally, I provide insights into the experiences that inform my lens as the researcher, and then through interviews and purposeful conversations, I explore the multifaceted influences that inform the chosen educator’s pedagogical approaches. There are several themes that have emerged from a holistic analysis of these components, such as: (1) the importance in acknowledging the tensions between curriculum-as-planned and curriculum-as-lived; (2) the roles of institutions, the act of teaching, and morality within education; (3) the entity of the teacher; (4) the reclaiming of identity and language within educational spaces; and (5) empowering difference by working through discomforts. These findings contribute to the importance of empowering difference within the classroom through the critical evaluation of the pedagogical choices of educators and the ways in which these choices are communicated through the discourse and curricula implemented within the classroom.