On April 16, 2009 in San Diego, CA, Debbie Pushor was presented with an Early Career Award, an International award sponsored by the Narrative Research Special Interest Group (SIG) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). This award is designed to recognize a researcher’s outstanding accomplishment in the area of narrative research and is intended to honor an individual in the early stage of her or his career, that is, no later than 10 years after receipt of the doctoral degree.

Dr. Jerry Rosiek, in making the award presentation, noted that Debbie received this award because of her writing in the area of narrative inquiry, her mentorship of graduate students and new scholars engaged in narrative inquiry research, her contribution to developing narrative inquiry graduate courses, and her use of narrative research methodologies in developing an exciting new research program around the topic of parent knowledge and parents’ positioning on school landscapes.

Writing in the Area of Narrative Inquiry
Debbie has published two significant co-authored pieces on narrative inquiry. The first, “Navigating sites for narrative inquiry” was published in the Journal of Teacher Education and laid out a compelling framework for helping scholars design and live out narrative inquiries in teacher education. The article has been widely quoted as an excellent beginning source for narrative inquiry. The second of Debbie’s co-authored publications, “The interconnections between narrative inquiry and action research,” is an invited chapter in the new SAGE Handbook of Educational Action Research. Both pieces establish Debbie as a new scholar with expertise in narrative research methodologies.

Sage Journals Online – Debbie Pushor

Mentorship of Graduate Students and New Scholars
Debbie has supervised the theses and dissertations of a number of students who have undertaken narrative inquiry studies, both at St. Francis Xavier University and at the University of Saskatchewan. She has also served as an external examiner for students at other universities. In her role as program co-chair and program chair for the Narrative Research SIG, Debbie mentored new scholars and played a significant role in working with participants in a signature session of the SIG, “Moving into the Academy.” Prior to the start of AERA this year, she co-chaired an innovative two-day doctoral student seminar for the Narrative SIG/Invisible College. Debbie is an excellent mentor for graduate students and is enthusiastic about playing a mentorship role for the SIG.

Developing Narrative Inquiry Graduate Courses
Working with her colleagues at St. Francis Xavier University, Debbie introduced a graduate level course in their Education program. The course was well received and it has become an important part of the graduate program at St. FX. Since moving to the University of Saskatchewan, she has continued to push to have narrative inquiry as a methodology taught in courses and used for graduate student work. A course proposal for a methodology course in narrative inquiry, which Debbie co-developed, is currently being reviewed at the University of Saskatchewan. This course will promote narrative research in faculties outside of Education as well as within it.

Using Narrative Inquiry in her Program of Research
Debbie’s own research program relies heavily on narrative inquiry to develop conceptualizations of parent knowledge. She began this work in her doctoral program and has continued to pursue this program of research. Debbie was awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) grant to support these studies. As well as publishing her work in academic venues such as books and journals, Debbie is making her research available in other forms and venues. She writes articles for school administrators, teachers and parents to engage a broad range of audiences and stakeholders in a dialogue about what it means to respect and use parent knowledge in decisions which impact children’s schooling and, in so doing, to shift the dominant stories of schools. Debbie is much in demand as a keynote speaker at local and national levels. ]]> http://www.debbiepushor.com/news/early-career-award-2/feed/ 0