Narrative and Meaning: Exploring the Unexplored—How Context, Recontextualization, and Repetition Can Enlighten and Inform Living, Learning, and Leading

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this contribution titled, “Narrative and Meaning: Exploring the Unexplored—How Context, Recontextualization, and Repetition Can Enlighten and Inform Living, Learning, and Leading” (drawing upon work and research from a range of fields including literary analysis, education, psychology, and business), I will offer operational definitions paired with examples from experience and practice with the aim of exploring how the stories of an individual and collective mind can be recontextualized to create different thinking, behaviors, and outcomes. Through the examples, I intend to explore how an initial understanding of how the mind works can be shaped by the experiential understanding in informing narrative. I will apply the frame of narrative to explore personal and professional experiences over time and how (even when perhaps not apparent or explicitly stated) narrative was a powerful and driving force for change. This arguably unorthodox approach is intended to invite and encourage a multi-disciplinary discussion of narrative and meaning as it relates to learning, change, and growth (and the human condition).