Can I Get a Witness? the Significance of Finding a Witness for Liberatory Education

University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Fall 2005 Can I get a witness? The significance of finding a witness for liberatory education Martha J. Ritter University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation Ritter, Martha J., "Can I get a witness? The significance of finding a witness for liberatory education" (2005). Doctoral Dissertations. 290. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/290 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CAN I GET A WITNESS? THE SIGNIFICANCE OF FINDING A WITNESS FOR LIBERATORY EDUCATION BY MARTHA J. RITTER B.A., Tufts University M.Ed., University of New Hampshire DISSERTATION Submitted to the University of New Hampshire in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education September, 2005 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3183904 Copyright 2005 by Ritter, Martha J. All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ® UMI UMI Microform 3183904 Copyright 2005 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2005 Martha J. Ritter Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This dissertation has been examined and approved. Barbara E. Houston, Ph.D., Dissertation Director Professor of Education yrm Diller, Ed.D. ’rofessor of Education Scotfrletcher, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Education ^ aJ Thomas R. Newkirk, Ph.D. Professor of English Paula M. Salvic^ViuT^ Associate Professor of Education /S" lob Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DEDICATION Dedicated to Nur Ritter, for his laughter and love and Josefina Marca, for her marvelous stories iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to first thank the children and youth that joined the writing groups in Cochabamba, Bolivia. It is the stories they wrote and read to one another that inspired this dissertation. The young writers and the stories they wrote are with me still. From the bottom of my heart, I thank the Proyecto Zoe Group - Lee Cridland, Kathy Meruvia, Janet Wellington, Nur Ritter, and especially Carlos and Anna Aliaga. It was this group of friends who helped me to begin the writing groups. My family - Don and Char Hill, Susan and Bob Egan, Stuart Silverman, Joy and Michael McGowen, Ann Ritter, Art Ritter, Art and Mary Ritter, Chris Ritter, Clare Ritter, and Rhoda Ritter - have cheered me on and been patient with me through the long project of writing a dissertation. I want to thank the good friends who offered all kinds of sustenance and friendly challenge. I especially thank Johanna Gurland and Mark Kaminsky for their visits, near and far, for the tasty dinners, and the frequent notes of encouragement. I thank Whitney and Susan Scott for hours of Tai Chi practice, a place to live and write in the woods by the river, and so much more. For sustenance of all kinds, I especially thank Nur Ritter. His presence in my life is a wonderful gift. Also at home, there are three cats closely associated with the writing of this project. Raincloud, from Bolivia, who has spent years now, stretched over the top of my computer keeping me company. Grady, who gave birth to her kittens on my desk one afternoon in Fresno. The kittens’ mews may not have sped along the process of the writing, but added much to the hours at my desk. And Orangejello, a cat who pulled me away from the desk and into the garden to admire him stretched out in the hammock. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. With deep appreciation and respect, I acknowledge my comrades through doctoral studies - particularly Carina Self, Jennie Marshall, and Anneliese Mueller. My life, my studies, and my thinking have been enriched by our many conversations around all sorts of tables. I thank Tom Schram for his thoughtful guidance through the course work and qualifying exam. I thank Michael Andrews for his unfailing trust in me. Enormously helpful to me were the conversations I had about my dissertation research at the Philosophy of Education Society Meetings over the years of the project. I especially thank Daniel Vokey, Heeson Bai, Dwight Boyd, Ron Glass, Megan Boler, Claudia Eppert, Craig Cunningham, and Paul Farber. I also thank the group at the California Association of Philosophers of Education (CAPE) for their helpful response to a presentation of Chapter Four of this dissertation in May of 2003 at Stanford University. At Fresno Pacific University, I thank my colleagues Jean Fennacy, Debbie Manning, Michael McMahon, Scott Key, Mary Ann Larsen-Pusey, Steve Pauls, Bobbi Mason, Denise Rea, Vickie Bigler, Jeanne Janzen, and Linda Hoff. I especially thank Katrina Poetker, who always seemed to know just the right thing to say. And finally I want to thank my dissertation committee — Barbara Houston, Ann Diller, Paula Salvio, Scott Fletcher, and Tom Newkirk. I feel so lucky to have worked with each of them. I thoroughly enjoyed so many of our conversations; conversations that, for me, embody the best sense of what education should be about. Without question, I found witnesses. I want to especially thank Barbara Houston, my advisor and good friend, for the countless hours she spent talking with me in her office, at her kitchen table, and on the phone. I have learned so much from her guidance and shared inquiry with me throughout this project. vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PREFACE In February 1995,1 invited children and youth living in an orphanage in Bolivia to join a writing group. The director gave me her permission with some misgivings about whether anyone would want to write. Twelve children, ranging in age from 7 to 15 years old, chose to join the group. We met in two small rooms off a large playroom in a recreation center on the orphanage grounds. Most days, younger children played in the large room and we shut the door on their busy chatter. Outside, the wind sweeping out of the valley and along the mountainside picked up strength nearly every afternoon. Surrounded by the muted voices of the young children through the door and the wind whistling in the windows we talked and wrote together two afternoons a week for two years. The children and the stories they wrote occupy my thoughts still. In the writing group, children chose their own topics. Manuel wrote about a snail who only wanted a clean puddle to live in. Natalie wrote about a cat who seemed to know everything and would appear unexpectedly to give people advice or explain why something happened. There were stories about imagined family trips and soccer games with teams in the Bolivian league. I wrote as well. We talked about our writing in easy conversation as we worked, reading informally to one another and commenting on each other’s text or illustrations. I occasionally had formal conferences with each child and organized group readings. I typed stories the children chose to publish and bound the illustrated text into individual and group books. Writing was read formally to a larger audience on seven occasions during the two years. The larger audience included various vii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. combinations of peers, housemothers, teachers, the directors of the orphanage, and other guests. Prior to this group, my experience with writing workshop had been as a teacher in formal school settings. Like the director, I was unsure of how children would respond to my invitation. Unlike school, they were not obliged to attend. I did not even offer snacks to entice them to join the group. That the children enjoyed the writing group is evident in their continuing to come to write for two years. Both Ana’s and Eduardo’s comments about their writing capture something about what they found meaningful in the work of the writing group. Ana, at twelve years old, wrote a story about a princess that grew up with the animals in the forest, separated from her family. She explained writing the story in these words: Primeramente pense algo bonito y me fui imaginado sobre mi pensamiento. Mi parte favorita es cuando este muchacha encuentro dentro la selva algo muy asombroso para ella. First I thought of something beautiful and then went on imagining all that was in my thoughts. My favorite part is when the girl found something in the forest very marvelous for her. Eduardo, also twelve years old, explained to a group of visitors being shown around the orphanage that “Here is where we write our own stories, we write what is in our thoughts.” Enjoyment, on its own, is reason to write; however, I think there is more to say about the needs and purposes of the children and youth who joined the writing group.

Load more