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emerging field? While beyond the scope of this dissertation, the assumption is that
emergent curriculum has the transformational power to alter images that impede selfactualization.
Personal Background
Taking a narrative approach, I am creating a personal story of a path taken. The
path is non-linear and circuitous, representing a labyrinth of recursive directions.
Walking the labyrinth enables vision beyond the lines of linear thought through to
imagination and intuition. It serves as an entryway to the unseen world, where
transformation can occur (Artress, 1995).
The labyrinth is usually in the form of a circle with meandering but purposeful
paths. From the edge to the centre and back out again, the labyrinth represents a metaphor
for “our journey through life” (Artress, 1995, p. xii). The visualization of self as a teacher
alters as the path leading to the centre and back out to the edge is constructed,
reconstructed and deconstructed.
I recognize that my development as an early childhood educator has been driven
by imagery, images connected to the power dynamic between the teacher and the learner.
How I see myself as I walk into the labyrinth is fundamental to the journey. At the
beginning of my walk into the labyrinth, the image I had of myself depicted was
negative, connected to feelings of self-doubt and shame. I had internalized a perceived
public image of the early childhood educator, which devalued our worth. Along the path
of the labyrinth, while the image did alter, it did, nevertheless, re-emerge in its negative
form at various points during the walk. As I move in and out, back and forth on the
labyrinth’s circular network of paths, a reframed positive image emerges. Journeying to