Narrative Pedagogy
Learning and Narrative Pedagogy
To facilitate narrative learning, time for preparation is a crucial reflective process when the learner begins to ask questions such as ‘Who am I?’, ‘How have I become?’, ‘What are the major events in my life?’ and many more. The pre-active phase covers the engendering of new events and stimuli through to frame refraction and narrative incorporation. It is vitally important at the narration stage that the teacher or educator also shares her own narrative. This gesture places the teacher/education as an equal participant of this process rather than an expert or voyeur.
Figure 2: Spiral process of narrative learning
Following on from narration is a collaborative event where stories and interpretations are exchanged and reconstructed and revisited. Collaboration can also take place in a group social setting – where the participants (the teacher/facilitator and the learners) compare their stories and interpretation, develop thematic and conceptual understandings and insights, and identify challenges and dilemmas. Collaboration can also take place in a sense with texts – documents and readings which can have the same collaborative effect as face-to-face meetings, if less animated.
