The Eighth International Literacy & Education Research Network Conference on

SPETSES, GREECE
4-8 July 2001

Abstract:

My son was born with a rare genetic disorder. His life has continued to shape who I am, how I teach, and how I live with others. Loss and grief has coloured my life with him. Loss also touches each of our lives. In these places of loss, disability, and dependence one can find things of great value, ways of being with each other, of caring, of sharing self, and of receiving the other that does not depend on growth or achievement or on progress in learning. As I began to question and examine the place of loss within education and began to investigate, construct, and tell narratives of mothering, loss, grief and hope, both the inquiry process and the story fabric evolved as both written and visual, an interplay of image and text. Autobiographic narrative offers a way in, extends an invitation to give and to receive, and opens the way for personal and relational transformation.

Bionote

Sylvia Wilson is a PhD student in Curriculum Studies. She teaches in the Elementary Teacher Education program, works as a textile artist, and is interested in art making as an inquiry process and in the transformative power of creativity and art making.

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Presentation Type
30 min. Paper

Presentation Equipment and Other Requests

Speaking Date/Time Restrictions

Country
Canada