Abstract

This paper aims to evaluate my early attempts at using my Teacher’s Diary as a method (Aleskewski 2006, Holly & Altrichter 2011, Bold 2012) to gain a deeper insight into the moral dimensions of my day to day practice as a teacher educator in the tertiary sector in the UK. I chose this method of data collection firstly for its potential to be authentic, trustworthy and systematic due the very nature of the researcher as participant (Ellis 2004, 2009; Piper & Simons 2011) and secondly as a genuine method to interpret my everyday actions as moral ones. This evaluation aims to highlight the extent to which I was able to reach these aims as a novice auto-ethnographical researcher. Much of the literature reflecting upon the use of diaries and narratives in research is able to demonstrate the rich data that can emerge from the text that is then analysed and interpreted by both researcher and reader (Ellis 2004; Anderson 2006; Sparkes 2007; Kenton 2011; Bold 2012). This rich data is often put forward as best placed to help readers connect with the author and understand their experiences of their cultural context more fully. The first aim of this paper is to share my experiences of using this method of data collection by highlighting the contradictions and challenges and sometimes ‘messy’ nature of maintaining diaries (Holly & Altrichter 2011) within education research contexts as both the teacher-participant and researcher. The second aim of the paper is to reflect upon the usefulness of the dairy as a way of ‘seeing’ practice. The third aim is to briefly draw upon literature from the work of Pring (2001), Goodlad et al (1990) and Mahony (2009) and Fallona (2000) Noddings (2010) who suggest that teaching is a moral endeavour and that teacher’s morals can be visible in their practice and to analyse examples of the diary entries that show moral dimensions. The paper will add to the work of Webb & Blond (1995) and Husu & Tirri (2003) who also explore the extent to which a Teacher’s Diary can, in a practical way, show the moral aspects that arise, and the decisions taken, on a day to day basis by one teacher educator. The paper begins to highlight the extent to which morals can be taught or caught in this context, namely teacher education (Mahoney 2009), and makes the point as Kiss and Euban (2010) do, that developing the virtues of intellect either through explicit curriculum, pedagogical choices or institutional values, cannot be separated from developing virtues of character.