PhD Oral Exam - James Watt, Education

When studying for a doctoral degree (PhD), candidates submit a thesis that provides a critical review of the current state of knowledge of the thesis subject as well as the student’s own contributions to the subject. The distinguishing criterion of doctoral graduate research is a significant and original contribution to knowledge.

Once accepted, the candidate presents the thesis orally. This oral exam is open to the public.

Abstract

This autoethnographic narrative inquiry traces my journey toward becoming a nature-based educator, using the concepts of becoming, plateaus, and lines of flight from Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari to frame my investigations. I draw on the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly as a metaphor to encapsulate key life experiences—my plateaus—that have shaped my teaching philosophy. These experiences include my religious upbringing, global travels, engagement with Indigenous epistemologies, analysis of adolescent nature narratives, and a 30-year tenure at the alternative high school I founded. Through autoethnographic narrative inquiry, I describe, analyze, and interpret how these personal and scholarly experiences shaped my evolving role as an educator and led me to question conventional teaching models. The theory I propose, Nature-based Pedagogy of Becoming (NBPB), contends that being a nature-based educator is not a fixed identity but an ongoing evolution shaped by a series of plateaus and lines of flight. This process unfolds through dynamic interactions between teachers, students, and the natural environment, where each participant develops unique narratives and engages in their own forms of becoming. I aim to offer fellow educators an alternative pathway beyond traditional, teacher-centred approaches, advocating for a nature-based, holistic, and immersive teaching model. By challenging the notion of a fixed teacher identity, this work offers new insights into how educators and students co-evolve through shared experiences in natural environments.