| This self-study of becoming a critical teacher educator extends the research on blogs as a vehicle of critical self-reflection in teaching and teacher education. While the primary focus of this thesis is a self-study of the process of becoming a teacher educator, the author presents findings based on discursive data collected from blogs produced by teacher candidates in two case studies, which inform this process of becoming. The case studies are represented as two "strands": one carried out in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, at McGill University, and the other carried out near Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Like prior studies involving the use of blogs in teacher preparation, this study examines pre-service teachers' critical engagement with topics and issues endemic to their current field experiences and future careers in K-12 classrooms. The instructional techniques deployed in the case studies adhered to principles of modeling technology integration in order to transform teaching and learning activities by facilitating a learning environment for pre-service teacher candidates informed by the tenets of critical pedagogy. In this vein, this study examines the implementation of a particular instructional strategy, problem-posing pedagogy, as a practice that integrates the use of blogs to aid the achievement of pre-service teacher candidates' "critical self-engagement" as well as contribute to the author's development as a critical teacher educator. |
