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Abstract

This thesis investigates the discourses that were present in one teacher education
site in Tasmania over a two-year period. This involved both the investigation and
analysis of teacher education practices as well as pre-service teachers' responses to
such practices. The research is ethnographic, focusing in particular on the
discourses produced by Secondary English pre-service teachers in the construction
of their subjectivities.
This thesis draws from post-critical writing pedagogy, discourse analysis and
feminist poststructuralist theory, arguing that subjectivity is fragmented, multiple
and fractured rather than fixed and unitary. The research strongly argues that
teacher education practices of personalising experience through the use of the
genres of narrative, biography and autobiography constrain subjectivity.
Furthermore, researching the personal through teacher research and action research
'focuses on the research process rather than the writing process. This research
repositions the personal as a product of discourse, rather than personal experience,
by repositioning research as writing (Lee 1995/1996, 1998) and discourse analytic
techniques as significant in providing Secondary English pre-service teachers with
the semiotic space to reconstruct pedagogy.
The dominant discursive positions that were made known in relation to the
Secondary English pre-service teachers are identified using a grounded theory
approach and further elaborated using discourse analysis. The dominant discourses
of the teacher education site were also analysed in conjunction with the Secondary
English pre-service teachers as part of the emancipatory intention of the study. The
initial analysis of data from the first year of the study resulted in the
implementation of an interruptor strategy on subjectivity (McWilliam 1995),
through the process of research as writing (Lee 1995/1996, 1998), to displace
Secondary English pre-service teachers' initial, fixed assumptions of teaching. The
deconstructive process of double reading (Grosz 1989; Lather 1996, 2004) as well
as collaborative rewriting practices, worked towards displacing, repositioning and
in the process redesigning subjectivity and pedagogy. Reciprocity is positioned as
a critical and productive part of the study in the displacement and repositioning of
subjectivity.

Item Type:	Thesis - PhD
Authors/Creators:	Booth, Sara Peta
Keywords:	Teachers, English teachers
Copyright Holders:	The Author
Copyright Information:	Copyright 2006 the Author - The University is continuing to endeavour to trace the copyright owner(s) and in the meantime this item has been reproduced here in good faith. We would be pleased to hear from the copyright owner(s).
Additional Information:	Thesis (PhD)--University of Tasmania, 2006. Includes bibliographical references
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