Remembering
Karen
in
dappled light and summer hues
We are delighted to welcome you to this,
our second issue of Notes from the Field: Reimagining
Curriculum. This issue is dedicated to the memory of our colleague and friend, Karen
Hawkins, whose untimely death cut short a brilliant career
as a scholar, editor, teacher, and pedagogical researcher.
We are proud to continue the work she began with this
continuation of “Notes from the Field,” where Educational
Insights gives space
to practicing educators to share their learning and understanding
gained through active pedagogy and inquiry in their classrooms.
Notes from the Field publishes
and celebrates the insights gained by a cohort of teacher-researchers,
this time a group of Vancouver mainland teachers, many
of whom are teaching in inner city schools. The articles
in this issue illustrate how teachers within their
own classrooms can engage in valuable research that
can allow them insight into their own practice as well
as offer these insights within professional and scholarly
communities.
Karen’s life exemplified the qualities
of commitment and challenge, in her work as an educator,
in her deep love for her family and friends, and in the
impeccable courage with which she lived her life even
as illness began to limit the vibrancy and energy with
which she approached any activity she took on. She met
the challenge of re-imagining curriculum, not only within
her work as a teacher, writer and scholar, but also within
the poetic, joyful, thoughtful way in which she lived
her life. Memories of her wide and brilliant smile, her
amazing ready laughter, and the generosity she extended
to everyone who met her remain with us as hallmarks of
a life lived well. Last year, in her introduction to Notes
from the Field, Karen wrote:
We invite
you to listen carefully to the notes that are sounded
from the field in this issue; to incorporate them in
your own educational dialogues; to let their echoes act
as a prelude for you, testing your voice, and providing
you with an alternative vantage point from which to view
your own research, action and reflection.
In that spirit, we invite you to listen
to these echoes of presence and joy in Karen’s poem, where
she puts into images her love and care for the natural
world, her laughter, and her intense joy in living.
Luanne
Armstrong
Special Issue Editor
Notes From the Field: Reimagining Curriculum
Days Of Green And Gold
Laughing because the grass does
Running to make my heart pound
Spinning because it feels good
No better reason sought or found
Hiding where no one seeks me
Summer days stretch warm and bold
Backlit by remembrance
In shades of green and gold
Singing because the wind does
Reaching to touch the moon
Dreaming because you must to live
Knowing morning comes too soon
Climbing trees that touch the
sky
Lifting black into the blue
Lying safe under their spreading
arms
In dappled light and summer hues
Laughing because the grass does
Singing the wind's sweet song
Backlit by remembrance
Green and gold live on and on....
—Karen
Hawkins, 1961-2005
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