Today I successfully defended my dissertation: Musician/Teacher/Scholar: A Postmodern Autoethnographic Self-Study of the Intersections Between Teacher Identity, Teacher Be(com)ing, and Music Education. Hooray!

This week is dissertation defense week! I am defending my be(com)ing framework - joyful rage, stubborn belief in lived experience as data, and teachers' stories are at the center. I share "Return," an essay sourced from my dissertation.

I was convinced I would be non-renewed, even though my evaluations were highly effective and I had taken steps with the appropriate support systems in anticipation/mitigation of the problems that were attached to me. The pressure was real. The pressure was from all sides.
#PublicScholarship

Today is my first day at Emporia State University! Hooray!

"Every single performance was contoured by fear".

After 20 yrs in K-12 I’m stepping into a faculty role. I’ve republished “Prelude,” an essay on teacher agency & curriculum leadership through reflective self-study. Feedback welcome 👇

I have published the second movement in a trio of essays. This narrative centers my be(com)ing in the birth of a goat, where memory is method.

A scene from my dissertation, a rhizomatic entry point of my be(com)ing.

Curtis Westbrook