Kristen French - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
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With humble and heartfelt gratitude I must first and foremost thank my two mentors who introduced... more With humble and heartfelt gratitude I must first and foremost thank my two mentors who introduced me to academia and the power individual teachers have to change student's lives. Thank you. Dale McGinnis, for finding me amongst the dust and bones. I am reminded everyday of your spirit of giving and the ability to see possibility in even the most unlikely of characters. I hope you can see from the heavens the seeds you planted, and I will forever keep my promise to continue your mission. Words cannot capture my admiration for Dr. Sonia Nieto, my chair, advisor, mentor and friend. Few people have the opportunity to meet their s/heros, let alone benefit from their unconditional love and apprenticeship, but this has been my fortune. Thank you, Sonia, for giving me the courage to create an academic path unimaginable, sustaining me through the journey (especially through times of crisis), and modeling grace, intelligence and beauty within the academy. This dissertation would be absent the voices of hope and love without the commitment of my former students and co-researchers, Alison Anderson, Jessica Blass, Sandra Guiteau, and Elizabeth Mullins. May we always work together for social justice.
Genealogy, 2020
A collective of three intergenerational and intersectional educators engage in anti-colonial and/... more A collective of three intergenerational and intersectional educators engage in anti-colonial and/or decolonial processes of composting colonial distortions through Land-based conceptualizations of Critical Family History. Engaging in spiral discourse through Critical Personal Narratives, the authors theorize critical family history, Land-based learning, and Indigenous decolonial and anti-settler colonial frameworks. Using a process of unsettling reflexivity to analyze and interrupt settler colonial logics, the authors share their storied journeys, lessons learned and limitations for the cultivation of Critical Land-based Family History.
Teacher Education Quarterly, 2004
In this group, I feel like someone who has something to contribute-in other words, a 'knower,' a ... more In this group, I feel like someone who has something to contribute-in other words, a 'knower,' a person with a story to tell, a story that is relevant to the group discussions. This is not how I feel in other settings, like, for example, my school district. There, teachers are under the power of the administration. We are expected to implement top-down curriculum and decisionswhich does not provide the space for our input. Professional development is also a top-down decision that puts teachers in the same position: "Teach the students this, in the way I tell you, so they can improve the standardized test results." Being part of a critical literacy group has helped me to move away from teaching students my received knowledge to being conscious of myself as someone who is constructing knowledge with students and their families.-Nélida Matos, Bilingual Resource Teacher It feels like we are living critical literacy in this space.
With humble and heartfelt gratitude I must first and foremost thank my two mentors who introduced... more With humble and heartfelt gratitude I must first and foremost thank my two mentors who introduced me to academia and the power individual teachers have to change student's lives. Thank you. Dale McGinnis, for finding me amongst the dust and bones. I am reminded everyday of your spirit of giving and the ability to see possibility in even the most unlikely of characters. I hope you can see from the heavens the seeds you planted, and I will forever keep my promise to continue your mission. Words cannot capture my admiration for Dr. Sonia Nieto, my chair, advisor, mentor and friend. Few people have the opportunity to meet their s/heros, let alone benefit from their unconditional love and apprenticeship, but this has been my fortune. Thank you, Sonia, for giving me the courage to create an academic path unimaginable, sustaining me through the journey (especially through times of crisis), and modeling grace, intelligence and beauty within the academy. This dissertation would be absent the voices of hope and love without the commitment of my former students and co-researchers, Alison Anderson, Jessica Blass, Sandra Guiteau, and Elizabeth Mullins. May we always work together for social justice.
Genealogy, 2020
A collective of three intergenerational and intersectional educators engage in anti-colonial and/... more A collective of three intergenerational and intersectional educators engage in anti-colonial and/or decolonial processes of composting colonial distortions through Land-based conceptualizations of Critical Family History. Engaging in spiral discourse through Critical Personal Narratives, the authors theorize critical family history, Land-based learning, and Indigenous decolonial and anti-settler colonial frameworks. Using a process of unsettling reflexivity to analyze and interrupt settler colonial logics, the authors share their storied journeys, lessons learned and limitations for the cultivation of Critical Land-based Family History.
Teacher Education Quarterly, 2004
In this group, I feel like someone who has something to contribute-in other words, a 'knower,' a ... more In this group, I feel like someone who has something to contribute-in other words, a 'knower,' a person with a story to tell, a story that is relevant to the group discussions. This is not how I feel in other settings, like, for example, my school district. There, teachers are under the power of the administration. We are expected to implement top-down curriculum and decisionswhich does not provide the space for our input. Professional development is also a top-down decision that puts teachers in the same position: "Teach the students this, in the way I tell you, so they can improve the standardized test results." Being part of a critical literacy group has helped me to move away from teaching students my received knowledge to being conscious of myself as someone who is constructing knowledge with students and their families.-Nélida Matos, Bilingual Resource Teacher It feels like we are living critical literacy in this space.