Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA
Date of Award
5-2010
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Creative Writing
First Advisor
Dr. Jean Braithwaite
Second Advisor
Jose Skinner
Third Advisor
Philip Zwerling
Abstract
This manuscript explores the teaching process by following the protagonist‟s four year journey at a middle school in Edinburg, Texas. The narrator passes through four distinct phases: first-year angst, pedagogic subversion, converting the natives, and, ultimately, personal and professional acceptance. Daily interaction disrupts the narrator‟s worldview, complicating his relationships with peers, colleagues, family, and the local community. In a series of moves designed to make himself more accessible to students, the narrator encounters sexual, racial, and gender bias—much of it his own. Finally, after a serious accident in Central Mexico during Spring Break, the protagonist relies on his students to oversee his physical and emotional health. He ultimately drops labels, such as “inconsistent liberal” or “neocolonist,” in favor of a personal pedagogy dominated by vulnerability, Eros, realistic goals, and flexibility.
Granting Institution
University of Texas-Pan American
Comments
Copyright 2010 Christopher Girman. All Rights Reserved.
https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/wrestling-windmills/docview/726030562/se-2