Abstract:

My doctoral research looked at the educational potential for “becoming” in a former youth-detention facility that was located in downtown Toronto. With a goal toward broadening an existing but limited public discourse related to incarcerated youth and their education, I used participant interviews and physical remnants from a former prison classroom to do a narrative analysis of educational time passed in the space. Then, as a pedagogical exercise, I constructed a new “place” of meaning-making by curating a shadow-box frame. This article takes a reflective stance as I look back at the narrative and aesthetic process that brought the project into being. Specifically, I return to narrative analysis—what was the original project’s research methodology—to reflect on the creative process that had guided the construction of an aesthetic object used to help conclude the dissertation. I analyze that object, a shadow-box picture frame, and do so alternatively by referencing literature and aesthetic philosophy anew. I conclude by considering how the original research continues to impact educationally as teaching and learning are extended through ongoing attention to the frame and its contents.