Prestigious Award Nomination for School of Education Academic

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A book co-edited by Dr Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan of UKZN’s School of Education and Professor Anastasia P.Samaras of the George Mason University in the United States has been nominated for the 2016 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Qualitative Research Special Interest Group (SIG) Outstanding Book Award.

Polyvocal Professional Learning Through Self-Study Research (Sense Publishers, 2015) significantly advances scholarship on professional learning by presenting an original conceptualisation that illustrates the power of “we” for innovative and authentic professional learning.

Speaking about the book, Pithouse-Morgan said: ‘The 33 contributors include experienced and emerging self-study researchers, writing in collaboration across multiple professions, academic disciplines, contexts, and continents.

‘Building on, and extending, the existing body of work on self-study research, the book offers an extensive and in-depth scholarly exploration of the how and the why, and the impact of professional learning through context-specific, practitioner-led inquiry,’ she said. 

The chapters illustrate polyvocal professional learning as both phenomenon and method, with the original research that is presented in every chapter adding to the forms of methodological inventiveness that have been developed and documented within the self-study research community.

A free preview containing the first two chapters of the book is available at: http://tinyurl.com/okaqlaq

Emeritus Professor Fred AJ Korthagen of Utrecht University says the authors from various continents provide show how the ‘I’ can be strengthened through the ‘we’ perspective, convincingly illustrating how polyvocality, transdisciplinarity, and an intercultural approach deepen professional learning while  Associate Dean at the University of Arizona, Professor Renée Clift, believes the book comprises a fascinating set of chapters that illustrate the importance of many lenses and many voices when studying one’s practice.

The Qualitative Research SIG will announce the winner of the Outstanding Book Award during the April 2016 annual meeting of AERA in Washington, D.C. Criteria for judging the merits of the books include the significance and timeliness of methodological issues addressed and the contribution of the book to the advancement of knowledge about an area in educational research that can benefit qualitative inquiry.

Previous winners of this prestigious award include Professor Yvonna S. Lincoln of Texas A & M University, and Professor Johnny Saldaña of the Arizona State University.

Melissa Mungroo