Towards auto/pedagogy: A reflexive auto/biographic case study of professional learning mediated by
technology
Abstract of PhD Submission to the University of Wolverhampton, 2012
Simon Hughes.
Tracing the development of my thinking and professional practice from the late
1980s to the present day, this thesis uses the auto/biographic method developed at
CCCU by Linden West (e.g. West, 2004), in combination with a personal, reflexive
dialogic hermeneutic redolent of the epistemological approaches of liberation
theologians in the 1970s and 1980s, to evaluate critically the influence of five
illustrative moments on the generation of new knowledge. The thesis argues that
demonstrable learning gains were made when particular factors came together in
these autobiographical moments. The insertion of the slash "/" in auto/biography
denotes the self-directed reflection on these narratives, carried out systematically in
order to derive meaning from them. The process of critical reflection on the
narratives interwoven with reading around epistemology, the self and (information)
technology, led to a framework emerging. Within the illustrative moments there
appear to be four factors that, in combination, cause learning to occur: need,
knowledge, networks and the application of newly-acquired knowledge in a new
context or setting. Phonically, the framework can be argued to be N4. I argue that in
the 21st Century, especially where what is to be learned is something technological,
learning most likely occurs when all these factors are present. Recognising this to be
a personal phenomenon I adopt the term auto/pedagogy to describe it since I believe
that learning is a personal commitment to changing the state of one's being.
CONTENTS
You can download the PhD in the following parts in PDF format
Frontpage (1); Abstract & Acknowledgements (2); Contents (3-5); Table of Figures (6-7);
Foreword (8); Glossary of Abbreviations (9) pages1-9
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION pages 10-26
CHAPTER TWO: Underpinning literature pages 27-131
CHAPTER THREE: The Research Methodology pages 132-188
CHAPTER FOUR: An auto/biographical analysis of five illustrative moments in my career pages 189-283
CHAPTER FIVE: Conclusions pages 284-299
REFERENCES pages 300-312
APPENDICES pages 313-365
You can download all of the contents of the PhD in PDF format by clicking here. It is a 9.9 Mb file and will take some time to download with broadband
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