Enacting Self-Study

Engaging in a bricolage of critical personal history self-study allowed one school administrator to better understand his roles, responsibilities, and formation of identity within the context of a school system while envisioning the divergent possibilities of a yet-to-be-known future through the lens of love. Pedagogies of love can be understood as more than the embodiment of romantic notions of the word. Pedagogies of love enact relationality and challenge historically adequate practices that conjure a monological, prescriptive, and safe understanding of living classrooms—dynamic systems that are ever-emergent and continually adapting. These classrooms, better understood through a sense of ecological sensibilities, are spaces of the possible and not yet imagined. They can be the fertile locations of growth and change. This book sets out to share the story and journey towards self-knowledge for one school leader; however, the process will likely apply to others interested in social research. Through the recursive journey towards better understandings, the author has come to a place of increased awareness of his relationality and a better recognition of interconnected nature of all social interactions.

Derek Markides is a school principal with the Foothills School Division in Alberta. He has a master’s degree in mathematics education and a doctorate in curriculum and learning from the University of Calgary. His research interests include the study of self, student-centered leadership, place-based pedagogies, teacher reflexivity, and pedagogies of love.