Term of Award
Spring 2025
Degree Name
Doctor of Education in Curriculum Studies (Ed.D.)
Document Type and Release Option
Dissertation (open access)
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Department of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading
Committee Chair
Robert Lake
Committee Member 1
William Schubert
Committee Member 2
Ming Fang He
Committee Member 3
Antonio P. Gutierrez de Blume
Abstract
STIRRING UP FOXFIRE: REKINDLING PERSONAL PASSION FOR TEACHING THROUGH STORYTELLING.
by
FRANK BIRD III
Under the Direction of Robert Lake
ABSTRACT
There are two guiding questions for my dissertation and research. The first question pertains to the Foxfire program, a teaching program that originated in Rabun County, Georgia. What is Foxfire? Foxfire is many things. It is a glowing fungus in the mountains of North Georgia. It is fifty-plus years of publishing the Foxfire magazine, a high school class for fifty years, an approach to teaching, a museum, an intern program for high school students, and so much more (Smith, 2016), (Hatton, 2005) (Starnes, 2002), (Puckett, 1989), (Wigginton, 1986). In this dissertation, I discussed the Foxfire program, which involved high school students recording and transcribing oral histories and stories from Appalachia and Rabun County, Georgia (Wigginton, 1986).
My second question is, can storytelling invigorate passion in teachers? Educator and teacher Andrea Turner uses the technology of Podcasts to spread her ideas on education. She began her podcast, The Power of Storytelling in Teaching, with the words, "Tell me a fact, and I will learn." Tell me a truth I will believe. Tell me a story, and it will live in my heart forever (Turner, 2016). Dr. Michael Garrett writes about Cherokee mythology and the power of stories with native culture (Garrett, 2002). K. Egan, in his books Teaching as Storytelling (2008) and Imagination in Teaching and Learning (1986), details the power of storytelling with students.
Great educators have searched for the holy grail of learning and engagement for many years. With the pressure from standardized curriculum and testing, teachers’ and students’ needs often counter one another in a learning environment (Glasser, 1998), (Ayers, 2010), (Palmer, 1993). I approached my dissertation in an autobiographical narrative, using stories from my own life intertwined with numerous hours of conversation with former and current students of Foxfire, former and current teachers of Foxfire, museum curators for the Foxfire property, Rabun County residents, and coordinators for graduate level Foxfire teaching courses to find answers to my questions. (Clandinin & Connelly, 1990). (Sharma and Phillion, 2021)
The narrative of who we are stems from storytelling based on our past experiences, which helps us interpret our position in the universe. I utilized these authors to contribute to the field of teaching by writing about how a teacher can bring a story to the classroom and instill passion in their students' learning. While my journey and travels have centered on storytelling and teaching, I have shared my experiences and insights into the power of stories. It is about life and the influences and power of our own stories in teaching (Schubert, 1999), (Egan, 1986), which can provide a spark and embellishment to the classroom content.
What I discovered while researching this dissertation are the pieces that make up my life puzzle. The first piece of the puzzle I see is that of interconnecting threads making a tapestry. The second piece of my puzzle is finding wisdom on a gossamer strand. The third piece of this puzzle is spiders, and the fear of them is known as arachnophobia. The fourth piece of my puzzle is my daily chasing of sunrises. The fifth piece of my puzzle is the red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis). The sixth piece of my puzzle is a significant one: synchronicity, the pathway of our life experiences. The seventh piece is for me, as a teacher, to get the class started. The eighth piece somehow brings together all the pieces I can recall, and the others balance with the earth.
Keywords: Foxfire, Storytelling, Indigenous ways of knowing, Synchronicity, Dreamcatchers, Vision Quest, Foxfire Approach to teaching, Foxfire Fund, Context and Content, John Dewey, Elliot Wigginton, Progressive education, Traditional education, Dreams, Birddroppings, Medicinal plants, Rabun County, Improvisational teaching, Creativity, Imagination, Mountain City, Deliverance, Spiritual, Celestine Prophecy
OCLC Number
1411234679
Recommended Citation
Bird, F. E. (2025). STIRRING UP FOXFIRE: REKINDLING PERSONAL PASSION FOR TEACHING THROUGH STORYTELLING [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Georgia Southern University.
Research Data and Supplementary Material
No
