Empathetic-reflective-dialogical restorying as a teaching-learning strategy in teacher education

Abstract

ABSTRACT Employing empathetic-reflective-dialogical restorying as a teaching-learning strategy, pre-service teachers situated in two different geographical contexts, namely, South Africa and Norway, engaged in self-dialogue, self-narrative and in a Community in Conversation. Using Adobe Connect, together, they participated in a Community in Dialogue. By using this teaching-learning strategy in combination with a real-time, web conferencing app, this small-scale research project found that it is possible to facilitate online learning across geographical boundaries. Crossing geographical and contextual boundaries can possibly contribute to restorying pre-service teachers’ understandings of what constitutes best practice in teaching. It can also lead to the emergence of further collaborative initiatives for negotiating entrenched positions with regard to other aspects of education and pursuing restorying for transformation. The participants were encouraged, empowered and energised by the collaborative engagement. The two groups of pre-service teachers found one another in their common humanity, in their both being English second language speakers, and in their common goal to teach well and to be responsible to their learners in their respective contexts. Encouraging reflective and reflexive praxis has the potential to be transformatory for the classroom.