Deborah A Hicks <hicks@UDel.Edu>
Deborah A Hicks (hicks@UDel.Edu)
Mon, 30 Oct 1995 17:00:38 -0500 (EST)
I am working generally in the areas of discourse, literacy, identity, and
schooling. My current work is focused on exploring working class
children as persons in relationship in the contexts of home and school.
Central to this work is an understanding of how constructs like selfhood
(personhood) can inform theories of learning. I am drawing heavily on
the work of Bakhtin (particularly his earlier work on selfhood and
consciousness), philosophical writings on the self (Amelie Rorty,
Martha Nussbaum, Ian Hacking) and language (Charles Taylor, Bakhtin),
feminist theory (Jane Miller), and anthropological studies of selfhood
(Michelle Rosaldo). I am also interested in narrative-based research
methodologies, particularly ones that draw on biography as a research
tool. My current work, for instance, entails developing biographical
portraits over a three year time frame. Part of my interest there is
exploring the melding of research methods drawn from the humanities with
theories of psychological development (as in some of the work done by
Jerome Bruner). Finally, I am interested in the longterm implications of
such in-depth biographical work for the school lives of the children I am
studying. With the children's former kindergarten teacher (the kids I am
studying are now in first grade), I am exploring possible answers to
the question of how such research can be empowering for the children's
families and for the children's future teachers.