The Foreign Self: Truth Telling As Educational Inquiry

edited by François V. Tochon



Foreign-ness is always relational. On some level we are all foreigners because we are strange and different in relation to some defined other. When we travel, whether it be across the country or around the world, we accept some notion of ourselves as foreigners. -- from the Foreword by Gloria Ladson-Billings
"Telling the truth" as a form of educational inquiry situates the researcher intimately within the context of what is being investigated. There can be no objectivity -- nor is it desired. What is sought is a sort of shock to ones identity, used as the catalyst for seeking the truth. Moving out of ones own context or even culture serves as the impetus -- or shock -- to promote an inquiry.
This collection of essays uses the idea of truth-telling as a form of inquiry. The contributors all placed themselves outside of comfortable contexts and use the "shock" to begin searching for a truth. The editor, François Tochon writes: "It's a process that corresponds to what we may take to be most valuable in the term 'education': The idea is to learn yourself as part of the very process of change."