An Insight into Educational Narratives

Tell to Learn

              In their article ‘Narratives in Teacher Education’ Dolk and den Hertog (2008) describe a construction process in which student-teachers build up educational knowledge through narratives based on classroom situations in The Netherlands. Additionally, the authors present a curriculum design framework which contributes to the development of educational understanding through a narrative approach.

              Their main concern is the dichotomy between theory and practice which student-teachers seem to regard separately as far as actual classroom experience is concerned. There seems to be a need to bridge this gap and using a narrative approach can help this purpose as reflecting on one’s own teaching experiences enhances meaningful learning. 

              The authors then explain Multimedia Interactive Learning Environment (MILE) which is developed in The Netherlands with the objective of bringing together theory and practice in teacher training education. MILE contains a database of several hours of mathematics teaching in primary school gathered to allow the investigation of teaching and learning relationships in this particular field.

               They comment on the nature of narratives as resources for communicating with other colleagues and build up educational knowledge. This way, student teachers account for their paradigmatic experiences in order to observe and interpret those situations within theoretical frameworks. 

                To validate their view, the authors acknowledge the use of multimedia case studies which benefited the use of stories to construct narratives. They argue that, among other advantages, paradigmatic stories about education underlie everybody’s experiences which student teachers can use to interpret different theories and help them to excel those experiences beyond mere observation. The authors also reasoned the use of stories also concedes the setup of different hypotheses about education which enrich student teachers’ visions of classroom practice.

                 A six-step framework to aid the passage of storytelling to narrative creation was then realised. The first step entails observing a classroom situation which will lead to sharing and discussing about said situation in order to report views and acknowledge other observers’ opinions. Then, analysing takes place; here deeper observations are required since participants need to contribute with thorough interpretations. This last step gives room to the following one; reflecting, where new meaningful knowledge raises from the situation studied. Next, the information gathered leads to Developing narrative knowledge, where participants attempt to interlace theory and practice. Last, Expanding the personal repertoire and generalising the situation into a didactic for teacher education emerges as a narrative to construct didactical theory from the situation.

                  On the whole, the authors highlight the interwoven relationship between practice and theory. They believe narratives aid the construction of educational knowledge which can be developed by means of the six-step curriculum proposed; a cyclic process which entails a dynamic participation in teaching practice.

References 

Dolk, M. & den Hertog, J. (2008). Narratives in teacher education. Interactive Learning 

        Environments, 16(3),215-229. doi:10.1080/10494820802113970