F. Michael Connelly

Stories of Experience and Narrative Inquiry

Although narrative inquiry has a long intellectual history both in and out of education, it is increasingly used in studies of educational experience. One theory in educational research holds that humans are storytelling organisms who, individually and socially, lead storied lives. Thus, the study of narrative is the study of the ways humans experience the world. This general concept is refined into the view that education and educational research is the construction and reconstruction of personal and social stories; learners, teachers, and researchers are storytellers and characters in their own and others stories. In this paper we briefly survey forms of narrative inquiry in educational studies and outline certain criteria, methods, and writing forms, which we describe in terms of beginning the story, living the story, and selecting stories to construct and reconstruct narrative plots. Certain risks, dangers, and abuses possible in narrative studies are discussed. We conclude by describing a two-part research agenda for curriculum and teacher studies flowing from stories of experience and narrative inquiry.

Teachers' Professional Knowledge Landscapes: Teacher Stories––Stories of Teachers––School Stories––Stories of Schools

G ary Fenstermacher, in The Knower and the Known: The Nature of Knowledge in Research on Teaching (1994), reviewed conceptions of knowledge in the literature of research on teaching. His philosophical interest was an epistemological one, an interest in how notions of knowledge are used and analyzed in a number of research programs that study teachers and their teaching (p. 3). Fenstermacher structured his review around four questions that he assumed facilitated his epistemological scrutiny: • What is known about effective teaching? • What do teachers know? • What knowledge is essential for teaching? • Who produces knowledge about teaching? The review is informative on the four questions and raises important epistemological issues. We have no quarrel with the way various bodies of work were classified by his use of the questions. We wish to point out that the success of the use of the questions in facilitating his inquiry rests on the acceptability of the questions in the literature of research on teaching. One way or another, these are the questions that govern this literature. It is those four questions that are in question for us in this paper. Though not stated as such, the review, and the work surveyed, implies that valid, reliable, knowledge on the four questions will make possible better educated teachers. This, of course, was not Fenstermachers concern. However, it might seem that one could hardly deny this implication. Having reliable answers to these questions would surely do that. What alternative social justifications, after all, might be offered in defense of such research? But we think that answers to these questions are only partially capable of creating understandings that might justify the implication in its full-blown sense. We think the narrative context for the ongoing development and expression of teacher knowledge in schools is also of importance. In response to Fenstermachers review, we would, therefore, like to raise a fifth question that might be worded, How is teacher knowledge shaped by the professional knowledge context in which teachers work? We want to make the case that it is not only an understanding of teacher knowledge and the education of teachers that will make a difference but attention to the professional knowledge context in which teachers live and work. We believe that the professional knowledge context shapes the answers that may be given to Fenstermachers four questions. The professional knowledge context shapes effective teaching, what teachers know, what knowledge is seen as essential for teaching, and who is warranted to produce knowledge about teaching. To demonstrate this, we draw on an earlier argument for understanding the context for teacher knowledge in terms of the idea of a professional knowledge landscape (Clandinin & Connelly, 1995). Following a brief description of the idea of a professional knowledge landscape, we recount three sets of stories and interpret each in terms of that landscape.

TEACHERS PERSONAL PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE ON THE PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE LANDSCAPE

Abstract Though research on teaching has a long history, teacher knowledge research is relatively recent, mostly occurring in the 1980s and 1990s. Teacher knowledge research is part of a revolution in how educators think about classroom practice. In contrast to the concern for teacher characteristics and teaching/learning methods, the assumption in teacher knowledge research is that the most important area is what teachers know and how their knowing is expressed in teaching. There are several lines of such research. In this paper we describe one line of research focused on teachers personal practical knowledge as it is developed and expressed on the professional knowledge landscape. In the paper we outline the methodology for undertaking this type of research. The methodology is illustrated by a case study of a teacher in China.

Narrative and Education

Abstract In this paper we explore the question ‘What does it mean to have an education?’. Our search for an answer to that question led us, to link education with life. We were drawn to narrative texts rather than argument texts. We analyze Michael Oakeshott and Erik Eriksons works to make the point that education is a life process. The autobiographical writing of Mary Catherine Bateson and Henry Adams led us to a view of education as transcending schooling and as referring to life development. We propose a view of education in terms of cultivations, awakenings, and transformations. Oliver Sackss work with sleeping sickness is used to develop the idea of cultivations and awakenings and of how these are interwoven with education and life. We conclude with the question ‘How do I be an educator?’.

Immigrant students' experience of schooling: a narrative inquiry theoretical framework

We explore immigrant students experience of schooling focusing on Yang Yang and his family. We present insights into immigrant Chinese educational experience in Canada and bring forward a narrative‐inquiry framework for the study of student experience. We find that—contrary to some of the expectations of Chinese immigrants—family relations, student learning, and school policies are complicated, with families finding it difficult to translate Chinese educational values in the Canadian context and their children facing serious learning and social difficulties.

Joseph Schwab, Curriculum, Curriculum Studies and Educational Reform.

The ‘Practical 1’ paper combines Schwab’s abiding concern, for the nature and quality of educational experience with another abiding concern, for how we think about what we do. The Practical 1 is the first of a set of four ‘practical’ essays. These in turn are the product of his thinking about college education and his ideas on the principles of scientific inquiry applied to education in the Practical 1. What Schwab said about education was considered provocative at its time. What Schwab was doing has continuing value. He would, no doubt, say different things in the current educational environment but what he was doing as he said them would remain close to the original.The ‘Practical 1’ paper combines Schwab’s abiding concern, for the nature and quality of educational experience with another abiding concern, for how we think about what we do. The Practical 1 is the first of a set of four ‘practical’ essays. These in turn are the product of his thinking about college education and his ideas on the principles of scientific inquiry applied to education in the Practical 1. What Schwab said about education was considered provocative at its time. What Schwab was doing has continuing value. He would, no doubt, say different things in the current educational environment but what he was doing as he said them would remain close to the original.

Life in the foothills of curriculum

En avril 1999, F. Michael Connelly recevait une recompense de lAERA, lAssociation Americaine de Recherche Pedagogique. Cet article est la retranscription du discours quil fit a loccasion de la remise de cette recompense.