Creating Representations: Using Collage in Self-study

Abstract

As scholars from very different places and experiences, we have known each other for a long time. Mary Lynn grew up on the East Coast not far from New York City. Her teacher preparation occurred in an alternative but university-based program in the urban southwestern United States where she began her teaching in secondary social studies. Stefinee grew up and was educated in the rural Southwest. She completed a traditional teacher education program in English education at a small college and then began teaching on a Navajo reservation. After finishing her master’s degree in English at a large private religious institution, she taught several more years in the rural Midwest. We met at the University of Arizona where we began doctoral programs in the college of education at about the same time. Stefinee focused on educational psychology and Mary Lynn’s work focused more on the foundations of education, particularly cultural anthropology. Because both of us were interested in teacher education and we shared professors, we have similar beliefs about educational preparation, as well as similar notions of collaboration and community.