Uisge Beatha: the ebb and flow of four tides

Uisge Beatha: the ebb and flow of four tides

Life-stories explore who we are and how others view us, allowing critical insights into the nature of belonging and place, acceptance and othering in the development of a hybrid and postcolonial identity. Drawing upon the seminal works of authoethnographers Carolyn Ellis and Art Bochner, the identity and border theories of Homi Bhabha and the phenomenological inquiry of Max Van Manen the authors as migrants, educators and researchers create a 4 dimensional framework across which the trajectory of one researcher's life from foundling child to mature adult is explored.
Interweaving autobiographic narratives, transcripts of oral history, and symbolic representations of displacement and disempowerment from one author's life, the researchers subject that thick data to critical conversations. This critical exploration of narratives of displacement, labelling and othering creates a space out of which counter narratives of agency, resilience and transformation emerge, suggesting the subtlety and power of storytelling and writing for professionals in diasporic and transnational contexts of education.

© 2014 Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Accepted version deposited in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Multiple copies of print version held in the USQ Library at call no. 302.2244 Wea.