ABSTRACT
This is what we have done in this article. We provide for the reader a demonstration of the process we engaged in during our joint research effort. We invite the reader to be not just an observer but an active participant with us in the process in the same way we are active participants and not simply observers in the action research processes within which our own students engage. Since our own joint self-study emerges from the stories that our students share with us and each other, we begin with a story of one of our students. Then we demonstrate how we use the story with our students to make their values more explicit. Next we represent our method of memory work showing how we build on collective self-reflection. In order to do this we provide one of Moyra’s stories followed by our collective engagement with that story examining the issue of vulnerability/ liberation. We then move to a deeper examination of the interplay of this dichotomy through our joint presentation and analysis of an experience we had with the group of students that leads us to a deeper understanding of the
issue of liberation as we juxtapose it with the idea of colonization of students’ minds. Next, we present a poem by Pam and use the poem to capture the aesthetic but almost inexpressible nature of the deepest level of analysis. From there, we interrupt our text with a discussion of a critique of the text by colleagues. This presents the way critique of a text forces a reconsideration of not just the language of the text but sometimes a rethinking of the analysis of the text. The critique in this case causes us to reassert our analysis and our commitment to liberation of our students. At the end, we offer a collective yet individual statement of what we have learned presented in our individual voices.
