The Reluctant Impostor: A Narrative Self-Study From Drop-Out to PhD

Telling The Story With Care And Detail

In order to examine this experience further, I am drawing upon the narrative inquiry work of Clandinin and Connelly (2000) to examine the researcher’s changing positionality through the course of life-changes. Being a personal journey, I will eschew the typical use of a third-person reference to self, and I will also weave the literature on this topic throughout the chapter. To pretend that a change in language somehow removes me from my own experiences is a linguistic fantasy. The personal reflection contained in this chapter align with the narrative inquiry methodology.

In an effort to retain the collaborative and recursive elements of self-study, I have invited other voices to this work, from mentors to family members, and considered the artifacts I have reviewed in light of invited reflections. This is a story of person and teacher, and a story of one who found themselves at the boundaries/barriers of school experience, and yet who persisted and reentered the educational system as a teacher, mentor, and advocate for meaningful and healthy experiences with education.