Developing Teacher Dispositions through Bildung: A female Teacher’s Bildungsroman

Author(s):

Jeong-Hee Kim(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 07 E,

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-09

17:15-18:45

Room:

101.Oktatóterem [C]

Chair:

Susann Hofbauer

Contribution

The Purpose of the Study

I am a teacher educator whose research interest resides in understanding of Bildung (educating or forming of self) in the lives of teachers and students (author, 2013). This current proposal is my continuous effort to promote the concept of Bildung in teacher education as a way to develop teacher’s professional identity. In particular, I explore how a female teacher’s Bildungsroman, a story of a teacher’s Bildung, works as a way to develop teacher dispositions. Hence, the purpose of this study is twofold: First, to theorize the concept of Bildung as a philosophical foundation of teacher dispositions and professional identity. Second, to understand how a high school teacher develops her Bildung after undergoing tribulations in her lived experience, through her story of development (Bildungsroman).

Theorizing the Concept of Bildung

The German term, Bildung, elaborated in both philosophy and literature (see Davey, 2006; Gadamer, 1975/2006; Hardin, 1991), is an important concept in the human sciences (Gadamer, 1975/2006) that has a variety of obscure meanings, including “formation, cultivation, and education” (Davey, 2006, p. 37). The concept of Bildung, originated from the 18^th century idealism, played a central role in the work of Goethe, Schiller, and Humboldt, who identified Bildung as the primary goal of humanity. They contend that our true purpose in life is to cultivate our diverse talents into a balanced whole, and it is up to humans to develop to their full potential through active engagement with the world around them (Kontje, 1993). Embedded in the notion of Bildung is the idea that passive maturation through an innate talent is not good enough for human development; rather, every individual can develop him/herself through education and cultivation (Wahlström, 2010). Individuals can gradually develop their own potential through interaction with their cultural, social, geographical environment (Kontje, 1993). Hence, Bildung designates a human way of developing or cultivating one’s capacity or oneself (Gadamer, 1975/2006).

In short, Bildung is a disposition of mind that pursues something higher through intellectual and moral endeavor. Bildung shapes one’s identity, making meaning of one’s own person (Mortensen, 2002). It refers to an action that a person creates her ‘self’ that is held to be valuable (Schneider, 2010).

Bildung as a Theoretical Framework for Teacher Disposition

If Bildung is a “disposition of mind,” then, there should be a way that this concept can contribute to the understanding of teacher disposition, a notion that is “emerging in the field of teacher education in the U.S. and around the globe (Dottin, 2009, p. 83). Teacher dispositions are defined as “characteristics of a teacher that represent a trend of a teacher’s judgments and actions in ill-structured contexts (situations in which there is more than one way to solve a dilemma; even experts disagree on which way is best)” (Johnson & Reiman, 2007, p. 677). Further, teacher dispositions are what teachers are actually likely to do (actions) rather than what they can do (ability) (Dottin, 2009).

More and more researchers in teacher education attempt to conceptualize teacher dispositions (Diez, 2007; Diez & Raths, 2007; Dottin, 2009; Johnson & Reiman, 2007), and grapple with the definitional and philosophical aspects of dispositions in teacher preparation programs (Dottin, 2009). However, Johnson and Reiman (2007) posit that there is a lack of a clear understanding of the construct of disposition in the field of teacher education, which can be attributed to the lack of a guiding theoretical framework. This paper addresses this concern.

Method

Methodology and Methods Bildungsroman is a story of Bildung that cultivates and forms one’s disposition of mind through intellectual and moral endeavor. It is a narrative inquiry genre that focuses on a story of developing oneself and one’s journey of becoming. Bildungsroman refers to a highly reflective story on the self, “one in which the problem of Bildung, of personal growth, is enacted in the narrator’s discursive self-understanding” (Swales, 1978, p. 4). Roberts (2008) also states that the part of the role of the Bildungsroman is “to remind us that we all have a story to tell, and that while we can question and wrestle with what life throws at us, we cannot halt the flow of experience” (p. 252). I am currently in the process of writing Mrs. Daniela’s Bildunsroman, which will be presented in the full paper. Mrs. Daniela is a Caucasian woman in her mid-forties, who has been teaching for four years. I met her in my graduate class, Action Research in Education, which she took as part of her master’s degree. As a course assignment, she was asked to write a short autobiographical essay on becoming a teacher. In her essay, she wrote: In high school, I almost did not graduate, since one of my teachers was adamant to make me – and everybody else – believe that I am useless, not intelligent, and that I have no future. My life was miserable…. In essence, I quit my job, quit playing music and had to gradually develop my own potential through interaction with my cultural, social, and geographical environment. I had to completely reinvent my life and myself. After reading Mrs. Daniela’s autobiographical essay, I had a keen interest in her development of self as a teacher, wondering how she developed her teacher dispositions. After the semester was over, I contacted her to ask to be my participant. She agreed to be interviewed for my research after being informed of my research purpose. A research application was submitted to and approved by my institution’s IRB (Institutional Review Board). Data collection methods included in-depth life interviews with Mrs. Daniela, my observation of her for one semester (15 weeks), and her writing assignments submitted in my class.

Expected Outcomes

As I’m in the process of reconstructing Mrs. Daniela’s Bildungsroman, I think possibilities of Bildung and Bildungsroman for developing teacher dispositions abound, and those possibilities should be realized in order to honor the work of teachers. I believe that this conceptual study will contribute to the literature both in teacher education and narrative inquiry. The significance of the study is twofold: First, it provides a philosophical and theoretical framework for a discussion of teacher dispositions, which is an emerging topic that lacks a theoretical foundation in teacher education. The discussion of Bildung will contribute to strengthening the theoretical foundation and provide new insights into teacher education. Carr and Skinner (2009) posit that there can be “no genuine professional responsibility and accountability without the cultivation of capacities” (p. 145) of the teachers. I, then, argue that the main role of teacher’s Bildungsroman, which is a story of the teacher’s philosophical, ontological, and professional journey of becoming, is to cultivate such capacities that foster teachers’ ethical and moral responsibility, hence, promote their genuine accountability as professionals. Second, Bildungsroman as a form of narrative inquiry is an unexplored area, hence, this proposal contributes to furthering narrative research. Stories of teachers who engage in personal and professional journey with ups and downs, challenges, struggles, and dilemmas, need to be heard loud and clear (Goodson, 2000), as a way to honor their professional identities. However, Bildungsroman is not limited to the story of teachers. As we can see in the characteristics of Bildungsroman discussed above, it offers much space to narrative inquirers as we write not only the lived experience of teachers but also that of students and other protagonists.

References

Carr, D., & Skinner, D. (2009). The cultural roots of professional wisdom: Towards a broader view of teacher expertise Educational Philosophy and Theory, 41(2), 141-154. Davey, N. (2006). Unquiet understanding: Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics. Albany: State University of New York Press. Diez, M. E. (2007). Looking back and moving forward: Three tensions in the teacher dispositions discourse. Journal of Teacher Education, 58(5), 388-396. Diez, M. E., & Raths, J. (Eds.). (2007). Dispositions in teacher education. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc. Dottin, E. (2009). Professional judgment and dispositions in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25, 83-88. Gadamer, H. G. (1975/2006). Truth and method (J. Weinsheimer & D. Marshall, Trans. 2 ed.). New York, NY: Continuum. Goodson, I. (2000). Professional knowledge and the teacher's life and work. In C. Day, A. Fernandez, T. Hauge & J. MØller (Eds.), The life and work of teachers: international perspectives in changing tiems (pp. 13-25). London: Falmer Press Hardin, J. (Ed.). (1991). Reflection and action: Essays on the bildungsroman. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Pres. Johnson, L., & Reiman, A. (2007). Beginning teacher disposition: Examining the moral/ethical domain. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23, 676-687. Kontje, T. (1993). The German Bildungsroman: History of a national genre. Columbia, SC: Camden House. Mortensen, K. P. (2002). The double call: On Bildung in a literary and reflective perspective. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 36(3), 437-456. Roberts, P. (2008). From west to east and back again: Faith, doubt and education in Hermann Hesse's later work. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 42(2), 249-268. Schneider, K. (2010). The subject-object transformations and 'Bildung'. Educational Philosophy and Theory. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-5812.2010.00696.x Swales, M. (1978). The German bildungsroman from Wieland to Hesse. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Wahlström, N. (2010). Do we need to talk to each other? How the concept of experience can contribute to an understanding of Bildung and democracy. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 42(3), 293-309.

Author Information

Jeong-Hee Kim (presenting / submitting)

Texas Tech University

Curriculum and Instruction

Lubbock

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