Experience as a Learning Form. A Class Conscious Narrative

Abstract

Using institutional ethnography and narrative, this analysis exposes the role of schools and teachers in serving students, their families and communities.  The analysis explores the extent to which academic learning is privileged and the pros and cons of such privilege.  The author balances a traditional and non-traditional research design that opens a dialogue about how teachers and students cope within stigmatized programs. The movement by governments to 'bottle' a curriculum to nurture a generation of creative people, serves as a backdrop. Slojd and crafts teachers are exalted for using a more authentic pedagogical form compared to their academic counterparts.  The author's autobiographical account as a university teacher educator sets the stage for a more complete representation of what is really going on in schools under the long arm of government. 

Keywords:  experiential learning, narrative inquiry, cultural capital, colonialist policy, human creativity