Dwelling in the In-Between: A Self Study of Moving into a Classroom with Unconventional Learners

Abstract

The impetus for this research project stems from an enduring commitment to comprehend, enhance, and innovate pedagogical principles underpinning my teaching practices. Experiencing a transition from preparing teachers to work more expressively in movement settings with neurodiverse youth to directly working with neurodiverse adults in a non-movement-based college setting marked a pivotal moment. Recognizing this novel shift in teaching contexts, an inherent need arose for a naturalistic, flexible, and emergent approach to delve deeper into my evolving teaching practice. In employing a Self-Study approach, I followed LaBoskey's (2004) recommended features of establishing an improvement-aimed, self-focused, self-initiated, interactive, and reflective/reflexive research design, where the study employed qualitative data characterized by thickness and richness, fostering questioning and wonderment. The analysis embraced an inductive approach, generating detailed descriptions and narratives by engaging with critical friends, journals, notes, recordings, and continuous reflective writing and self-questioning. Three overarching thematic statements emerged from this immersive analysis: How did I not see that coming/who will it be today; Teaching is hard; The many faces of anxiety. These encapsulated the essence of my evolving teaching practice. Composite narratives were constructed, highlighting trajectories and storytelling arcs that illuminated turning points and critical incidents within each thematic statement. This research endeavor sought to contribute valuable insights into the emergent pedagogical practices when practitioners transition to the college educational sector as contractual faculty and work with a range of complex and unconventional student learners.