For an initial assignment in a Curriculum Studies graduate course, the author was required to write a story based on an experience from her own convent school days. Disconcerted by what appeared to be a memory block, she finally produced a text, but it was metaphorical rather than anecdotal. In this paper she attempts to understand her inability to articulate her experiences by using deconstruction, Lacanian analysis, and poetry to explore the metaphor embedded in her initial text. The insight and voice she gains through the layered writing process leads her to suggest that a reflective teaching practice and a critical pedagogy might intersect in the novel reframings of personal educational experiences. By breaking out of our habits of representation we may be more likely to recognize-and transform-our habits of interpretation.  

Anne Hewson is an associate professor at St. Thomas University in New Brunswick, Canada, where she teaches in the Education Department. Her interests include arts-based inquiry, drama education, mindfulness in learning and teaching, poststructural theory, and critical pedagogy. Anne can be contacted at ahewson@stu.ca