Empathetic-reflective-dialogical re-storying: A teaching–learning strategy for life orientation

Janet Jarvis

doi:10.4102/td.v17i1.1077

Abstract

This article presents a teaching–learning strategy that has been employed in recent small-scale research projects at a South African higher education institution, and more specifically, in the School of Education. Bachelor of Education Honours students enrolled for a module entitled Contemporary Issues in Life Orientation participated in the studies in 2017 and 2018. The introduction of empathetic-reflective-dialogical re-storying as a teaching–learning strategy created a space for these male and female students to explore their self-dialogue in relation to their understandings and lived experiences of human rights issues, and in this case, gender inequality. This teaching–learning strategy created the opportunity for pre-service teachers to become agents of their own learning as they considered entrenched beliefs and worldviews and co-constructed (re-storied) previously held narratives. By sharing their self-narratives in a community in conversation and then in a community in dialogue with their ‘other’, the possibility existed for creating new knowledges. This strategy, serving a decolonisation agenda, adopts a transdisciplinary approach. It encourages reflection and reflexivity that can transform technicist classroom practice into potentially transformative classroom praxis.

Highlights

This article argues for empathetic-reflective-dialogical re-storying[1] as a teaching–learning strategy employing a transdisciplinary approach
Re-storying, or reimagining, revising or rewriting or reauthoring an existing narrative, provides the possibility of creating transformed new knowledges. Whilst this strategy is currently employed with pre-service Life Orientation teachers in a higher education institution, it could possibly be employed in a school context in Life Orientation lessons
I thought I understood gender equality, but in community in conversation made aware of our privileges as men ... we have a lot of privileges we are not aware of.’ (Dumi, male, 2017)

Summary

Introduction

This article argues for empathetic-reflective-dialogical re-storying[1] as a teaching–learning strategy employing a transdisciplinary approach. An empathetic exploration refers to the capacity to understand and respond to the lived experiences of another person with an increased awareness of that person’s thoughts and feelings and that these matters.[2] Reflection implies thinking through something and not just taking it on face value This strategy facilitates a reimagining [or re-storying] of current hegemonies that underpin gender inequality.[3] Re-storying, or reimagining, revising or rewriting or reauthoring an existing narrative, provides the possibility of creating transformed new knowledges. Whilst this strategy is currently employed with pre-service Life Orientation teachers in a higher education institution, it could possibly be employed in a school context in Life Orientation lessons. This strategy provides a safe space in which these pre-service teachers can consider the way in which their personal identity has been shaped by dominant discourses and how they can impact on their engagement with human rights issues

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Results

Conclusion