Narrative Pedagogy Research Articles

Negotiating pedagogical positions in higher education during COVID-19 pandemic: teacher's narratives

Based on a qualitative semi-structured interview, this paper argues that pedagogical positions can be negotiated and adjusted once a policy is introduced and a safe space for negotiation is created. It is a case study where we cite evidence from a Saudi university that shows the change in teachers' assumptions and, consequently, the negotiation process they had gone through within their institution due to a sudden policy shift. The paper highlights the importance of policies and the surrounding circumstances when it comes to negotiating pedagogical beliefs. This paper challenges the long-established assumption that age and much experience make it difficult for teachers to adapt their face-to-face educational activities to online platforms. We argue that institutional policies play a crucial role in shaping and reshaping teachers' assumptions and practices when the following conditions are met: sound IT infrastructure, technological support, and continuous training.

Thresholds and Ordeals: (Re)storying the Teacher’s Journey

ABSTRACT This article explores the ways in which the language of the hero’s journey can serve as a heuristic for teachers at all stages of their professional experience. Teachers in Canada and the United States were interviewed via Skype about their experiences around writing and literacy. Four teachers are profiled here, two from Canada and two from the United States. Through narrative analysis, the author suggests that using the specific language of the hero’s journey, but not necessarily its linear structure, can help articulate commonalities and divergences in teacher narratives.

THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF FUTURE TEACHERS

In Latvia, inclusive education is relevant as seen in the past several decades, during which time society has developed a more comprehensive understanding of and made significant progress towards implementing inclusive education. Nevertheless, there is still a gap between the priorities of education policy and reality in educational institutions. The quality of education accorded to students is informed by the knowledge, understanding and experience of teachers in the implementation of concepts of inclusive education. The current study aimed at identifying the visions of prospective teachers (already working in schools) concerning inclusive education. To explore the experiences of future teachers, this qualitative study used narratives (i.e., written answers to open-ended discussion questions) of prospective teachers as a research strategy. The study team recruited participants at the University of Latvia, which included 61 students in the work-based teacher education study programme and 46 future pre-school and primary school teachers. Therefore, the current study offers insight into how comprehensive education is implemented in Latvian schools. The results reveal a positive attitude on the concept of inclusive education among most prospective teachers. However, they have concerns about the quality of its implementation, which come as a consequence of limited resources (human, time and financial) and the underdeveloped teachers’ professional competence in the implementation of diversity solutions. Therefore, improving the study process of future teachers enhances the development of their competencies in the provision and promotion of solutions regarding inclusive education.

Values, culture, narrative and medical education: The case for a renewed focus.

There are gaps in medical education that have been subject to little or no critical scrutiny (1). Recent literature, including Bearman et al.'s contribution in this issue, underscores the imperative by exploring the relationship between culture, values, narrative and medical education (2-5). Culture is a contested concept, but it influences pedagogy, teaching and learning (2, 3, 5), so there is a compelling case for further research and theory development to bring about a better understanding of culture with its concomitant values and narratives both in medical education and healthcare writ large.

Primary science teachers’ narratives about significant colleagues in light of collective PCK

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to bring the voices of teachers to the foreground and provide insight into the collective aspects of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) development in primary schools, as perceived by science and technology teachers themselves. Through narrative inquiry in a retrospective and situated perspective, the narratives of the teachers are analysed, and findings are discussed with regard to the concept of significant colleagues and the two recent consensus models of PCK. The findings reveal teacher narratives concerning the influence of not only local collective structures and significant colleagues around perceived PCK development but also collective aspects of PCK, which provide a practice embedded perspective on its development through collegial structures.

La formación docente desde la profesión y el género

The purpose was to identify the way in which the teacher training processes of the Faculties of Engineering and Pedagogy of the Veracruzana University in the Veracruz-Boca del Rio metropolitan area have been built around academic work, since they are two professions socially typified for the male gender the first, by virtue of the number of men who study, exercise and teach it; the second profession studied, exercised and taught to a greater degree by the female gender. In this way, teacher training constituted a meeting point from which various categories were investigated, however, for the purposes of this work, only disciplinary updating, academic preparation and pedagogical updating are analyzed. The methodology is qualitative and the ethnographic method. Through biographical narratives, the way in which academic trajectories have been built through teacher training processes from their initial teacher training and professional teaching practice is addressed. A biographical interview was conducted with 10 academics, three men and two women, attached to the Faculty of Engineering and 2 academics and 3 academics attached to the Faculty of Pedagogy aged between 40 to 54 years, with more than 5 years of teaching experience in the upper level. The structure of the analysis was made up of 4 dimensions, namely: teacher training, professional and academic career and gender, which derived categories and subcategories. The results show, from the teaching narratives, a diversity of discourses around disciplinary updating, academic preparation and pedagogical updating. The conclusions allow us to contrast the meanings around the mentioned categories.

Creating cultural refugia to transform the boundaries of science.

This paper is a reflection on Bobby Habig, Preeti Gupta, and Jennifer Adams’ article Disrupting deficit narratives in informal science education: Amplifying community cultural wealth theory to youth learning and engagement. The article examines the significance of community cultural capital and the need for informal STEM institutions to engage more deliberately with the knowledge and lived experiences that youth bring to programs they participate in. In my response, I question whether the informal science institution of study had changed in response to these young people. As a ‘science insider,’ I explore how research experiences in informal science education institutions such as museums are tightly bounded by and connected with ancient European scientific practices that limit a deep embrace of community cultural wealth. If the aim is for youth to develop their science identities, then these informal science education institutions need to question what kind of science people they are asking youth to become. I consider how informal science education institutions might remake themselves as cultural refugia, where interrogation of the dominant Eurocentric norms of what science is can be challenged and transformed.

The meanings of differentiated instruction in the narratives of Eritrean teachers

ABSTRACT The principles of inclusive education largely accepted by governments of different countries require differentiated classroom instruction to meet the diverse needs of individual students. Despite this, teachers have differing experiences and understandings about implementing differentiated instruction (DI) and heterogeneous classrooms. This narrative study aimed at exploring the meanings of DI in the Eritrean context, where teachers are not explicitly familiar with the concept, although their teaching practices reflect some level of differentiation. The research data consisted of 17 narrative interviews with Eritrean mathematics and science teachers. The results of the narrative analysis showed that the teachers constructed five meanings of DI in their narratives: as a caring orientation, as a flexible pedagogic approach, as a self-reflective process, as a failed attempt and as a demanding approach. The majority of the narratives were found to produce positive meanings of DI, and the teachers constructed strong agency towards carrying out DI. These examples of sophisticated DI practices in the teachers’ positive narratives could be utilised to implement DI, even in situations where teachers have limited resources and training and in contexts with large class sizes.

Trans* subjectivities in the higher education curriculum

This article seeks to problematize the production of trans bodies, abnormal bodies that occur in the production of their genres from the narrative of trans teachers in northeastern universities. Interviews were used in order to locate, describe and problematize the discursive practices of the curriculum in this educational space, focusing on gender norms, heteronorm, and the observation of cracks in hegemonic norms. For that, inspiration was sought in queer analytics, which defends a post-identity and fragmented view in opposition to the hegemonic identity/binary thinking about sexuality and gender studies. Six trans* teachers from northeastern higher education institutions were interviewed. From the analysis, the fixed identities and the hegemonic discourses that imprison them in the binary of the sexes were problematized, taking the body itself as a political power that drives the ruptures operated in the relations of the curriculum.

“I’m just British—normal British”: Exploring Teachers’ and Pupils’ Conceptualisations of Religion(s) and Religious Belonging

ABSTRACT This article seeks to foreground the voices of primary school teachers and children—often silenced in research—and explore how they understand religion(s) and religious belonging. The findings draw on qualitative data investigating the narratives of teachers and pupils from five primary community schools in the West Midlands (England). The research shows that religious traditions in contemporary Religious Education classes still tend to be constructed as un-diverse, impermeable, monolithic wholes as teachers rely on the dominant World Religions Paradigm. As religions as lived tend to be ignored, children find it difficult to situate themselves within debates and conversations pertaining to religion(s) and religious diversity and consequently tend to speak about ‘others’ and imagined ‘them’. As a result, most children believe that RE is learning about the ‘Other’ and tend to construct ‘world religions’ as un-British. The article concludes that, overall, RE fails to challenge static representations of religion(s) and rigid categorisations and that the subject ought to offer alternative representations of religious beliefs and practices by foregrounding the lived realities of children and religious communities.

Using narrative in STEM education

Interdisciplinary pedagogy, especially team-taught courses, can advance STEM success for all students. This presentation focuses on three pedagogical exemplars: learning communities, co-teaching, and team teaching. It explores my use of narrative, both written and in virtual worlds, in interdisciplinary courses over the past decade. I will also illustrate how to apply the insights of interdisciplinary pedagogy to STEM education.

A Comparative Study on Teacher's Narrative of School Curriculum Development in South Korea and China

A Comparative Study on Teacher's Narrative of School Curriculum Development in South Korea and China

Arrested Development: How This We Believe Utilizes Colorblind Narratives and Racialization to Socially Construct Early Adolescent Development

Early adolescents go through developmental changes which are also mediated through social and structural forces that reproduce stratifying hierarchies around race, class, gender, and sexuality. Despite the intersection of early adolescent development with social and institutional forces, critical concepts such as race are often omitted in general discourses of middle level education. It is important that the leading body for middle level education, the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) and their doctrinal text, This We Believe, explicitly address the nexus of race, early adolescent development, and schooling. In this article, we draw upon critical race theory as a conceptual framework and critical race discourse analysis as methodology to examine how This We Believe negotiates the social construction of early adolescent development as rooted in whiteness in addition to the racialized realities of middle level education for students of color. Findings indicate This We Believe utilizes colorblindness alongside racialization discourses to create majoritarian narratives of middle level education and early adolescent development. In conclusion, we offer three alternative philosophical statements to This We Believe critical educators can adopt that are attentive to the intersection of race, adolescent development, and middle level education.

Welcoming Narratives in Education: A Tribute to the Life Work of Jonathan Silin

Issue 45 of the Bank Street Occasional Paper Series is a labor of love. It testifies to our love for Jonathan Silin, who for 17 years served as Editor-in-Chief of the Occasional Papers. The issue is also a testament to our respect for the things that matter to him. We have designed Issue 45 to exemplify two commitments that have shaped the decades of Jonathan’s career and that we believe will resonate with readers of the Occasional Papers.

Welcoming Narratives in Education: A Tribute to the Life Work of Jonathan Silin

Welcoming Narratives in Education: A Tribute to the Life Work of Jonathan Silin

A Study on the Content of Narrative Teaching for Understanding the Way of Action of Narrative Images

A Study on the Content of Narrative Teaching for Understanding the Way of Action of Narrative Images

ВПЛИВ КУЛЬТУ ОСОБИ НА УКРАЇНСЬКИЙ ІСТОРИКО-ПЕДАГОГІЧНИЙ НАРАТИВ (1920–1980-ТІ РР.)

У статті проаналізовано прояви впливу культу особи радянських політичних лідерів В. Леніна і Й. Сталіна на український історико-педагогічний наратив. Показано, що у наукових працях обидва радянські лідери завжди подавалися як геніальні вчені, інтелектуали, мислителі, які продовжують і розвивають теорію К. Маркса та Ф. Енгельса. Відзначено, що у творах обох більшовицьких вождів історики педагогіки дошукувалися тез щодо історичних обставин і прогнозів розвитку освіти і педагогіки. Встановлено, що культ особи Й. Сталіна у 1930–1940-х рр. в наративі істориків педагогіки потіснив культ особи В. Леніна. Підкреслено, що після ХХ з’їзду КПРС (1956) з історико-педагогічного наративу зникають згадки про Й. Сталіна і уводиться висновок про шкідливість культу особи для наукової роботи. Досліджено, що масштабних проявів культу особи М. Хрущова та Л. Брежнєва в історико-педагогічному наративі українських учених не було, а спроби звеличення їхньої діяльності мали фрагментарний характер.

Voicing the Longing of the “Adolescent Heart” through Photography and Film: Connecting Transcendence and Revelation in Catholic Religious Education

This paper explores how through narrative pedagogies inspired simultaneously by divine pedagogy revealed in Scripture and the power of modern media to visually represent the human heart’s most profound longings, divine revelation can, through Catholic Religious Education (CRE), reach and transform adolescent hearts. Such a transformation is made possible through adolescents’ expression of transcendence in a communal context that is facilitated when metaphor’s power in helping adolescents tell stories about themselves is unlocked through photography and film. These media teach young people use their capacity for imagination and critical thinking more effectively and produce narratives of self through which they narrate who they are and would like to be. Such media impact identity through the process of merging words, imagery, music and movement, and can be so dynamic and effective in representing self. CRE can thus enable young people to become critical, even of their own past experiences, make them more integrated and coherent, empower them to meet life’s challenges, and afford them the opportunity to project their lives in the future as they wish them to be. All throughout such a process, adolescents learn more what God’s revelation entails and its potential to make human life more beautiful and meaningful.

‘We came together on the idea of being “foreign”’: Teacher narratives for the teaching of immigrant and refugee youth

In the midst of an international debate about immigration, this qualitative ethnographic study focuses on the stories and teaching practices of immigrant and refugee educators working with immigrant and refugee youth at a community‐based after‐school programme in the Midwestern region of the USA. Using existing literature to describe the educational experiences of immigrant and refugee youth and teacher narratives to explore the pedagogies of immigrant and refugee educators, the author addresses the following questions: How do political narratives impact the educational experiences of immigrant and refugee students in the USA? How can the narratives of immigrant and refugee teachers serve as both counternarratives and sources of promising pedagogical practices for immigrant and refugee youth? With a data corpus developed through participant observation, reflexive journaling, interviews and focus group discussions, the author uses narrative analysis with teacher vignettes and asserts that educational researchers and practitioners should look to immigrant and refugee educators to enrich the research about appropriate pedagogies for immigrant and refugee youth.

Disrupting deficit narratives in informal science education: applying community cultural wealth theory to youth learning and engagement

Informal learning organizations such as museums, zoos, aquaria, gardens, and community-based organizations are often positioned as having programming that fill a void that may exist in the lives of youth participants. Often these institutions do not recognize the assets that youth gain from their own homes and communities and bring to bear in these programs and that contribute to their success and persistence in STEM and academics. In this paper, we problematize the prevailing deficit-oriented approach to STEM enrichment programs for youth who are underrepresented in STEM. Drawing from Tara Yosso’s theory of community cultural wealth, we describe the STEM identity and trajectories of three individuals as they navigated a long-term, museum-based, informal science learning program. Using Yosso’s framework, we describe the capital that youth brought into the program and the ways that they leveraged this capital as they moved from middle to high school, and into their postsecondary studies and early careers in the sciences. Furthermore, we describe how their existing capital intertwined with capital they gained from the museum program in ways that fostered persistence and achievement in science.