School of Education Announces--“Troubling Method” – A New Book by Drs. Hendry, Mitchell & Eaton

 

10/23/2018

Baton Rouge – Troubling Method: Narrative Research as Being seeks to remove narrative inquiry from method. The shift to a post-humanist, post-qualitative moment is not just another phase in modernism that attempts to better knowledge production. This is a change to understanding research as an ontology, a way of being in the world, rather than a mode of production. Fundamental assumptions of research: method, data, analysis, and findings are evaluated and categorized as a mode of relational intra-action.

Written by two of LSU School of Education faculty, Dr. Petra Munro Hendry, Interim Dean Roland Mitchell with Dr. Paul Eaton, Troubling Method is written as a conversation between the three authors. Following the introduction that problematizes “method,” the book is split into three sections, each consisting of two chapters that are bracketed by an introduction to the issues that will be discussed and then a dialogue in which the authors discuss what makes possible the questions they are asking about method and narrative research.

Petra Munro Hendry is the St. Bernard Chapter of the LSU Alumni Association Endowed Professor in the College of Education. Since 1991, she has been at LSU, where she teaches courses in Curriculum Theory, Curriculum History, Oral History Methodology and Gender Studies. She is involved with the Curriculum Theory Project (CTP), an interdisciplinary research initiative which endeavors to understand education practice and reform within a broad social, political and cultural framework. Her scholarship examines the role of narrative in the construction of curriculum history, educational research and teachers' life histories. She is the author or co-author of five books and is currently completing research on her next book which draws on creolization theory to examine the history of education in Louisiana from 1685-1896. In addition, she has published in leading educational journal including Teachers College Record, American Journal of Education, Qualitative Inquiry and History of Education. In 2014 she was selected to be a Woest Fellow in Arts & Humanities at the Historic New Orleans Collection. She also received the AERA Lifetime Achievement Award in spring 2016.

Roland Mitchell is the Interim Dean for the College of Human Sciences & Education. Dr. Mitchell has authored six books and numerous other scholarly works that have appeared in leading educational journals. He is the co-editor of The Crisis of Campus Sexual Violence, which was awarded an Outstanding Academic Titles award and highlighted on the Top 25 Favorites list of the Choice editors. He serves as the director of the Louisiana Summit on African American Male Educational Success, is an advisory board member of the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services, an associate board member of Campus Federal Credit Union, and for his ongoing service at meeting the needs of underrepresented populations in education, Dr. Mitchell has been awarded the David A. Kahn Award for Exemplary Service by the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition. Dr. Mitchell received his BA in History from Fisk University and his MEd in Higher Education from Vanderbilt University. He then went on to earn a PhD in Educational Research from The University of Alabama. Dr. Mitchell joined the college in 2005 as an instructor and most recently served as the Associate Dean for Research & Academic Services and Jo Ellen Levy Yates Endowed Professor in the School of Education. He is also active in the Curriculum Theory Project.

Paul William Eaton is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership – focused in Higher Education Administration – at Sam Houston State University.  He received his PhD in Educational Leadership & Research from Louisiana State University in May 2015.  His concentration was Higher Education with a cognate in Curriculum Theory. Eaton was also very active in the Curriculum Theory Project. While attending LSU for his PhD, Eaton organized and led the Curriculum Camp.  Paul completed his dissertation, entitled #Becoming: Emergent Identity of College Students in the Digital Age Examined Through Complexivist Epistemologies in February, 2015. His dissertation was awarded the 2016 Outstanding Dissertation of the Year Award from the College of Human Sciences & Education at Louisiana State University. Eaton's research has appeared in The Journal of College Student Development, The Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs, and the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. He currently has two additional manuscripts that will appear in Teachers College Record in 2019 and The Review of Higher Education at a date yet to be specified.

About SOE

The LSU School of Education (SOE) offers graduate and undergraduate programs in Curriculum and Instruction, Educational Leadership and Research, and Counseling, including two completely online master’s programs. SOE offers a range of professional and academic degree programs that focus on preparing students for careers in education, research, policy formation and implementation, as well as program oversight. The School’s mission is to prepare P-12 educational professionals to be leaders, practitioners, and scholars knowledgeable in contemporary educational issues. SOE is part of the College of Human Sciences & Education.  

Visit the School of Education.

About CHSE

The College of Human Sciences & Education (CHSE) is a nationally accredited division of Louisiana State University. The college is comprised of the School of Education, the School of Kinesiology, the School of Leadership & Human Resource Development, the School of Library & Information Science, the School of Social Work, and the University Laboratory School. These combined schools offer 8 undergraduate degree programs, 18 graduate programs, and 7 online graduate degree and/or certificate programs, enrolling more than 1,900 undergraduate and 1,120 graduate students. The College is committed to achieving the highest standards in teaching, research, and service and is committed to improving quality of life across the lifespan.

Visit the College of Human Sciences & Education.

-30-