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Writer's pictureandrew Thom

McNiff Reading Response

What is the main idea of the reading?

The main idea that I got out of reading McNiff's "My Story is My Living Educational Theory" was that she has a number of concerns that relate to her educational inquiry research and the importance of making sure that just because the majority of this research is done by specific people in a specific field, we shouldn't allow that to result in the research they/we are doing become as narrow as it sometimes appears to be. In particular, it seems that she has a lot of concern with the way a lot of statements and assumptions are made in this research, but because the vast majority of people reading it have similar backgrounds and interests, there is not a lot of questioning of the inquiry itself. When McKniff was writing about how a lot of the research being done was input-output driven with a predetermined result already in place before the experiment began, it made me really think about the ways that a lot of research is indeed being done with an outcome already being determined, and when you already know what your result is going to be before you even begin, I can't help but wonder how effective and critical a person is being in the midst of the experiment.


Key quote and what it meant to me:

A quote that really stuck out to me from this reading was when McKniff was writing about a research article that was submitted to her which made her have a number of thoughts, including "I gradually realized that the story was too neat." This stuck out to me because it made me think about a lot of the research that I have read over the years, from undergrad to grad school to professional development, and I often feel like I have similar thoughts on research where I will read about something this person did that served as a miracle cure to decades if not centuries of educational struggles, and I can't help but think something was left out. Exactly as McKniff said, it was too neat, and I find myself wondering where all the failed recipes that happened before this took place? As someone who has taught in several difficult education settings, I've gotten advice from a number of people who claim to have a method or strategy but in reality they have experience and relationships. The best education research in the world isn't going to work if you don't put the time and effort into building trusting relationships with students that allow these methods and research to be successful, and the idea of research being too neat struck me because of this.


Ideas for concluding post:

As I am putting together my concluding post and open letter to students, I'm thinking about making sure that my post is as real as possible. I have not had an easy start to my career, everything has not come easy to me, and I did not feel like a "natural" and more often than not, I had a long series of failures before I found success. To me though, that's what real research and growth looks like. When things were the easiest for me I never really learned anything, either about what I was doing or about myself. The struggles and what not are the reason why I feel more confident and secure now than I did when I earned my education degree, and I would want my students to see that my path was not "neat", that most if not all of theirs will not be neat either, and there isn't anything wrong with that because that's the place where real life research happens.


Jean McNiff. (2007). My Story is My Living Educational Theory. In D. Jean Clandinin (Ed.), Handbook of Narrative Inquiry: Mapping a Methodology (pp. 308-329).

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Nancy Romig
Nancy Romig
30 Kas 2020

Hi Andrew,


Thank you for your work here. It sounds like you’ve done a nice job with the McNiff article! It is a difficult article.


It sounds like you have some stories that may resonate with your students. In some ways, this assignment is a way to document of your life’s curriculum. Throughout your journey, you learned many things. What have you learned and how have you come to value these things? How (have/do/will) pass these on to students? As you write your letters, try and think about your students and that you are talking to them and humanize education. I do want to remind you that as you construct your letter, you will want to shape your stories in…


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