Looking for Home

A Phenomenological Study of Home in the Classroom

By Carollyne Sinclaire

Subjects: Transpersonal Psychology
Paperback : 9780791420409, 190 pages, July 1994
Hardcover : 9780791420393, 190 pages, August 1994

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Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Looking For Home

 

Souvenir from home
The call of home
Searching for home
Getting back home

 

2. Being at Home with Each Other

 

My home
Creating home for a child
Home is finding our self
Waiting for an answer
Memories of childhood
Connections to childhood create a home in the classroom for children

 

3. The Classroom--A Home for Exploration

 

The atmosphere of home
Being in each other's company
What I learn from the children
Exploring and expanding our home
What the children learn from me

 

4. Becoming at Home in the World

 

Making a home for all
Creating their own home

 

5. The Stances of Teaching

 

Leading and following the children home
Standing up for a child
Standing side by side with a parent
Helping a child stand up for herself

 

6. Commemoration and Celebration

 

Commemorating a life story
Celebrating a new life
Home at last

 

Bibliography

Index of Stories

Index

Description

Looking for Home: A Phenomenological Study of Home in the Classroom contains stories of children who seek "a home" in the classroom. The book focuses on the extraordinary in the ordinary moments with children in the day-to-day life in the classroom. Sinclaire blends stories of her classroom with remembrances of children to describe vividly the range of learning possible for children, teachers, and parents when the classroom is viewed as a place for becoming at home in the world, not solely as a place of instruction. She supplements these real-life vignettes with insights into teaching, learning, and caring for children so that they become reflections on teaching sufficiently significant to support other teachers in the narratives of their teaching.

Carollyne Sinclaire, former Faculty Associate with the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, is currently teaching elementary school for the Vancouver School Board.

Reviews

"The book is gripping. I wanted to read it straight through. The author reveals herself as an unusually sensitive teacher and writer with very telling insights. " — Louise M. Berman, University of Maryland College Park