- Professor Emeritus
Biography
Research interests
Richard Sawyer examines how individuals begin to “think in a new key.” He has three foci dedicated to scholarship on unfreezing and changing thinking and action in relation to rapid and ongoing changes in the world. First, he recently developed a methodology, now in use internationally, called duoethnography. Duoethnography provides individuals with a way to begin to examine underlying foundations of one’s beliefs and assumptions, as a way to understand the constructed nature of the formation of beliefs and their relationship to identity and then action. He has co-written approximately five books on this topic, written numerous book chapters, and given a large number of presentations on this topic. In 2015 he received the outstanding book award for a new qualitative methodology from Division D. of the American Educational Research Association.
In addition, and related to his work in duoethnography, Richard studies how educators begin to change their thinking and their teaching in relation to diversity. He has published articles on perceptions (and ways to unfreeze perceptions) of educators in the United States on Palestinians living in refugee camps and individuals resisting NAFTA in Mexico.
Third, Dr. Sawyer examines how educators change their perceptions and develop new visions for education. He has recently begun publishing on how teachers develop democratic and collaborative visions for public education.
In his work, he intertwines research with practice, ideally promoting reflexivity.
Teaching/professional interests
Dr. Sawyer chairs the Masters in Teaching Program in Secondary Certification on the Vancouver campus, is chair of the new Ed.D. Program for the Department of Teaching and Learning college-wide, and is co-editor of the journal of the Northwest Association of Teacher Educators, Northwest Passage: Journal of Educational Practice.
Educational background
- Ed.D. Curriculum and Teaching, Columbia University
- M.A. Education, San Francisco State University
- B.A. English Literature, University of Washington
Richard D. Sawyer Biography
Focusing on curriculum theory, Richard Sawyer examines how individuals begin to “think in a new key.” He has three foci dedicated to scholarship on unfreezing and changing thinking and action in relation to rapid and ongoing changes in the world. First, he recently developed a methodology, now in use internationally, called duoethnography. Duoethnography provides individuals with a way to begin to examine underlying foundations of one’s beliefs and assumptions, as a way to understand the constructed nature of the formation of beliefs and their relationship to identity and then action. He has co-written approximately five books on this topic, written numerous book chapters, and given a large number of presentations on this topic. In 2015 he received the outstanding book award for a new qualitative methodology from Division D. of the American Educational Research Association.
In addition, and related to his work in duoethnography, Richard studies how educators begin to change their thinking and their teaching in relation to diversity. He has published articles on perceptions (and ways to unfreeze perceptions) of educators in the United States on Palestinians living in refugee camps and individuals resisting NAFTA in Mexico.
Third, Dr. Sawyer examines how educators change their perceptions and develop new visions for education. He has recently begun publishing on how teachers develop democratic and collaborative visions for public education.
In his work, he intertwines research with practice, ideally promoting reflexivity.
Publications
Habibie, P. & Sawyer, R. D. (In submission). The use of duoethnography as a research method in
Applied Linguistics. Research Methods In Applied Linguistics (Jrnl).
Sawyer, R. D. (In submission). The Shadows of Liberation: Creating Hope and Meaning in
Creative Self-Study Inquiry. Diskursy Mlodych AndragogówAdult Education Discourses.
Ness, D. & Sawyer, R. D. (2022). Reviving Knowledges through Play and Resistance:
The Case of Navajo Conceptions of Space. Northwest Journal of Teacher
Education.17(3). 10.15760/nwjte.2022.17.3.14
Sawyer, R. D. (2022). Queer Narrative Theory and Currere: Thoughts toward Queering
Currere as a method of queer (curricular) Self-Study. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing,
37(1), 23-38. https://journal.jctonline.org/index.php/jct/article/view/981
Sawyer, R.D. (2022). Confronting Normative Autobiography Conventions at the
Intersection of Queer Literary Theory and Currere: A Fluid High School Homecoming.
Currere Exchange Journal 6(1), 2-14.
Sawyer, R.D., Masterson, J., & Matteson, R. (2022). Three Days in March: Examining
the Adaptive Expertise of A Teacher Leader at a Crucial Moment in a School Embedded
Teacher Preparation Program. The International Journal of Teacher Leadership, 11(1).
Sawyer, R. D. (2020). Developing a common language of ethical engagement in teaching:Lessons for and from a Time of Crisis.
Northwest Journal of Teacher Education, 15(2). https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/nwjte/vol15/iss2/.DOI: 10.15760/nwjte.2020.15.2.1
Sawyer, R.D., & Benozzo, A. (2019). Cross-Atlantic Discourses in Celebrity
Coming Out Stories: The Neoliberal Cases of Ricky Martin and Tiziano Ferro. Journal of
Curriculum Theorizing, 34(4), 38-52.
Sawyer, R. D. (2017). Tracing Dimensions of Aesthetic Currere: Critical Transactions between Person, Place, and Art. Currere Exchange Journal, 1(1), 89-100. https://www.currereexchange.com/uploads/9/5/8/7/9587563/14sawyercejv1i1.pdf
Sawyer, R. D. (2017). Teacher deliberations over time. A nexus of teacher dilemmas, questions,
experimentation, and agency. Teachers College Record, 119(14), p. 1-36.
https://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 22225.
Zumwalt, K., Natriello, G., Randi, J., Rutter, A., & Sawyer, R.D. (2017). Learnings from a longitudinal study of New Jersey alternate route and college-prepared elementary, secondary English, and secondary math teachers. Teachers College Record, 119(14), p. 1-54. https://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 22227
Sawyer, R.D., Neel, M.A., Coulter, M. (2016). At the crossroads of clinical practice and teacher
leadership: A changing paradigm for professional practice. International Journal of Teacher Leadership, 7(1), 17-36.
Sawyer, R. D., & Norris, J. (2015). Duoethnography: A Retrospective 10 Years After.
International Review of Qualitative Research 8(1), 1-4.
Sawyer, R. D., & Norris, J. (2015). Hidden and Null Curricula of Sexual Orientation: A Duoethnography of the Absent Presence and the Present Absence. International Review of Qualitative Research 8(1), 5-26. https://doi.org/10.1525/irqr.2015.8.1.1
Norris, J. & Sawyer, R.D. (2015). Finding a Researcher’s and a Teacher’s Voice in a Plethora
of Responsibilities: A Duoethnography on Administrivia. Brock Education. A Journal of
Educational Research and Practice 24(1), 24-36.
Farenga, S. J., Ness, D., & Sawyer, R. D. (2015). Avoiding equivalence by leveling: Challenging the consensus-driven curriculum that defines students as “average”. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing 30(3), 8-27.
Sawyer, R. D. (2013). Learning to Walk the Talk: Designing a Teacher Leadership EdD Program as a Laboratory of Practice. Planning and Changing 44(3/4), 208-220.
Sawyer, R. D., & Liggett, T. (2012). Shifting Positionalities: A Critical Discussion of a Duoethnographic Inquiry of a Personal Curriculum of Post/Colonialism. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 11(5), 628-651. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940691201100507
Hayes, M.T., Saul, M., & Sawyer, R. D. (2012). The poetics of refusal in Palestine. Palestine Journal of Politics, Economics and Culture, 18(2&3), 133-138.
Sawyer, R. D. (2012) Curriculum and International Democracy: A Vital Source of Synergy and Change. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing 26(1), 22-37.
Sawyer, R. D. & Laguardia, A. (2010). Reimagining the Past/Changing the Present: Teachers Adapting History Curriculum for Cultural Encounters. Teachers College Record, 112(8), 1993-2020.
Sawyer, R. D., and Pearl, A. (2009). Teachers learning with democratic education. Northwest Passage: Journal of Educational Practices, 7(1). http://www.nwate.org/sites/default/files/archive2009/NorthwestPassage2009_Sawyer_and_Pearl.pdf.
Sawyer, R. D. (2007). Professional musings on professional development: Teacher development in a new key. Northwest Passages. Journal of Educational Practices, 5(1).
Sawyer, R. D. (2003). Situating Teacher Development: The View from Two Teachers’ Perspectives International Journal of Educational Research 37(8), 733-753.
Slavit, D, Sawyer, R.D., & Curley, J. (2003). Filling your PLATE: A professional development Model for teaching with technology. TechTrends, 47(4), 35-38.
Sawyer, R. D. (2001). Educators and students learning together and apart with technology. Curriculum in Context, 28(1), 14-17.
Sawyer, R., D. (2001). Teacher decision-making as a fulcrum for teacher development: Exploring structures of growth. Teacher Development, 5(1), p. 39-58.
Sawyer, R., D. (2001). Teachers who grow as collaborative leaders: The rocky road of support. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 9(38). http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v9n38.html.
Sawyer, R.D., & Diller, K. (2001). Technology for inquiry: (Mis)uses of electronic reflective portfolios. Issues in Teacher Education, 10(1), 9-28.
Sawyer, R.D. (2001). Adapting Curriculum to Student Diversity: Patterns of Perceptions among alternate-route and college- based teachers. The Urban Review, 32(4), 343-364.
Sawyer, R. D. (2000). Mentoring But Not Being Mentored: Improving Student-to-Student Mentoring Programs to Attract Urban Youth to Teaching. Urban Education, 36(1), 39-59.
BOOKS
Ness, D. & Sawyer, R.D. (Accepted). Understanding curricular epistemicide: A light in dark times [placeholder title]. Peter Lang Verlag.(Counterpoints.) Shirley Steinberg editor.
Habibie, P. & Sawyer, R. D. (Accepted). Reflexive and Reflective Approaches in Applied Linguistics and Language Educational Research. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Zumwalt, K., Natriello, G., Randi, J., Rutter, A., & Sawyer, R. (2018). Recruitment, Preparation, Placement, and Retention of Alternate Route and College-Prepared Teachers: An Early Study of a New Jersey Initiative. National Society for the Study of Education. Teachers College, Columbia University.
Norris, J., & Sawyer, R.D. (2017). Theorizing Curriculum Studies, Teacher Education and Research through Duoethnographic Pedagogy. Palgrave Macmillan Press.
Sawyer, R.D., & Norris, J. (2016). Interdisciplinary Reflective Practice through Duoethnography. Palgrave Macmillan Press.
Brown, H., Sawyer, R.D., & Norris, J. (2016). Forms of Practitioner Reflexivity: Critical Professional Conversations for Change in a New Age. Palgrave Macmillan Press.
Sawyer, R. D. & Norris, J. (2013). Duoethnography: Understanding Qualitative Research. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
J. Norris, R.D. Sawyer, & D. Lund, D. (Eds.). (2012). Duoethnography: Dialogic Methods for Social, Health, and Educational Research. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Publications.
Sawyer, R. D. (Ed.). (1998). Building on Diversity: Exploring Issues of Teacher Retention. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University Monograph.
BOOK CHAPTERS
Sawyer, R. D. & Wright, S.. (In preparation). Duoethnography and Applied Linguistics (Place
holder title). In P. Habibie & R.D.Sawyer (Eds.). Reflexive and Reflective Approaches in
Applied Linguistics and Language Educational Research. Amsterdam: John Benjamins
Publishing Company.
Habibie, P., Sawyer, R.D., & Norris, J. (2022). Thinking Beyond Ourselves: Career
Reflections on The Trojan Horse of Hegemonic Discourses. In P. Habibie (Ed.).
Scholarly Publication Practices of Novice Scholars and Early-Career Researchers.
Palgrave.
Sawyer, R. D. & Norris, J. (2022). Duoethnography as a Method of Reflexive and Collaborative Self-Study: Compositions of Emergent (Polyvocal) Voices. In P. Habibie & R. Sawyer (Eds.). Reflexive and Reflective Approaches in Applied Linguistics and Language Educational Research. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Sawyer, R.D. (2021). Life History Inquiry into the Dynamic Ecology of Person And Place:
Dialogic Ethnographies as Public Engagement. Edited by A. Bainbridge, L. Formenti, &
L. West. The Ecology of Living: a biographical construction. Sense Publishers.
Sawyer, R.D. & Norris, J. (2021). Duoethnography as Critique and Hope: The Time for Change
is Now. In T. Fowler and W. Wallow. Duoethnographic encounters: Opening spaces for
difficult dialogues in times of uncertainty. DIO Press.
Norris, J. & Sawyer, R.D. (2021). Duoethnography: A Polytheoretical Approach to
(Re)Storing, (Re)Storying the Meanings that One Gives. In P. Leavy. Oxford Handbook
of Qualitative Research Second Edition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Sawyer, R.D. (2020). The ethics of teacher resistance: Acting on a vision for public education. In
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Garrino (Ed.). Togetherness and Its Discontents. Pensu Multimedia. Turin, Italy.
Sawyer. R.D. (2019). Forward to Duoethnography. In L. Lawrence & R. J. Lowe.
Duoethnography in English language teaching: Research, reflection, and classroom
application. Multilingual Matters. Bristol, UK.
Sawyer, R.D., Norris, J. Weibe, S. (2017). Teaching Duoethnography in Graduate Curriculum Theory Courses. In J. Norris, & R. D. Sawyer. (Eds.). Theorizing Curriculum Studies, Teacher Education and Research through Duoethnographic Pedagogy, pp. 15-38. Palgrave Press.
Norris, J., & Sawyer, R.D. (2017). The efficacy of duoethnography for teaching and learning: A
return to its roots. In J. Norris & R. D. Sawyer, (Eds.). Theorizing Curriculum Studies,
Teacher Education and Research through Duoethnographic Pedagogy, pp. 1-14. New
York: Palgrave Press.
Sawyer, R.D. (2017). The anatomy of dissent as teachers plan and lead a demonstration in Seattle: Intersections of hope, agency, and collective action. In S. J. Farenga and D. Ness (Eds.). Alternatives to privatizing public education and curriculum. A festschrift in honor of Dale D. Johnson. New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.
Sawyer, R.D., Dekker, L., & Rasmor, M. (2016). In Search of an Artistic Curriculum Identity. In R.D. Sawyer & J. Norris. (Eds.). Dialogic Interdisciplinary Self-Study through the Practice of Duoethnography, pp. 17-40. Palgrave Press.
Sawyer, R. D. (2016). Desperately seeking self-reflexivity: A critique of a duoethnography about becoming a post-colonial teacher. In H. Brown, R. D. Sawyer, & J. Norris. (Eds.). Forms of Practitioner Reflexivity. Critical, Conversational, and Arts- Based Approaches, pp. 117-134. Palgrave Press.
Brown, H., & Sawyer, R. D. (2016). Dialogic reflection: An exploration of its embodied,
imaginative, and reflexive dynamics. In H. Brown, R. D. Sawyer, & J. Norris. (Eds.).
Forms of Practitioner Reflexivity. Critical, Conversational, and Arts-Based Approaches,
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1-12. Palgrave Press.
Sawyer, R. D. & Norris, J. (2016). Dialogic interdisciplinary self-study through the practice of
Duoethnography, pp. 1-14. In R.D. Sawyer & J. Norris, (Eds.). Interdisciplinary
Reflective Practice through Duoethnography. New York: Palgrave Press.
Sawyer, R. D. (2015). The Pedagogy of Occupy Wall Street: A Self-Reflexive Examination of
Collective, Non-Linear Democracy. In: R Evans (ed) Before, Beside and After (Beyond) the Biographical Narrative. Duisburg: nisaba verlag.
Sawyer, R. D. (2015). Duoethnography: A Collaborative (Beside) and Transtemporal (Before and Beyond) Methodology. In: R Evans (ed) Before, Beside and After (Beyond) the Biographical Narrative, Duisburg: nisaba verlag.
Sawyer, R. D. (2013). CPED as an Incubator for a Clinical Practice Approach to Professional Teacher Preparation at Washington State University: Promoting a Context for Change. V. A. Storey (Ed.). Critical friendship: Innovative approaches to the EdD. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave MacMillan Publishers.
Sawyer, R. D. & Mason, M. (2012). The Scholarship of Practice: Intersections of Dialogue, Investigation, and Interactive Knowledge. The Teacher Leadership Ed.D. at Washington State University. In S. Wunder & Margaret Macintyre Latta (Eds.). Placing Practitioner Knowledge at the Center of Teacher Education– Rethinking the Policy and Practice of the Education Doctorate, pp. 125-146. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing Inc.
Sawyer, R.D. & Norris, J. (2012). Why Duoethnography? Thoughts on the Dialogues. In J. Norris, R. D. Sawyer, & D. Lund (Eds.), Duoethnography: Dialogic Methods for Social, Health, and Educational Research, pp. 289-306. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Publications.
Sawyer, R. D. & Liggett. L. (2012). Post-Colonial Education: Using A Duoethnographic Lens to Explore a Personal Curriculum of Post/Decolonization. In J. Norris, R. D. Sawyer, & D. Lund (Eds.), Duoethnography: Dialogic Methods for Social, Health, and Educational Research, pp. 71-88. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Publications.
Norris, J. & Sawyer, R. D. (2012). Toward a Dialogic Methodology. In J. Norris, R. D. Sawyer, & D. Lund (Eds.), Duoethnography: Dialogic Methods for Social, Health, and Educational Research, pp. 9-39. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Publications. |