Narrative Analysis

Martin Cortazzi

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781134079896
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

An important recent development in the study of teaching is the use of narrative analysis to study teachers' lives, their work and anecdotes exchanged in the staffroom.; This book critically examines current approaches to the study of teachers' narratives and argues that, for narrative research to be effective, we need to see narrative in a multi- disciplinary perspective. The book examines models of narrative analysis currently proposed in linguistics, sociology, psycology, anthropology and literature and applies insights from these disciplines to the study of teachers' narratives. The author proposes an alternative approach to studying narratives which is then applied to original data, demonstrating how narrative analysis can be used to study primary teachers' perceptions of their work. lt is suggested that narrative analysis could be used to study the perceptions or culture of any professional group.

Chapter 1
Introduction

Teachers’ thoughts, perceptions, beliefs and experience are all aspects of teachers’ culture which we need to know about and be aware of as a key factor in education, especially in times of change. Yet this crucial aspect of education is probably undervalued and certainly underresearched. Educational investigations, in general, have paid too little attention to teachers’ voices. Teachers’ culture is largely unexamined, except by ethnographic studies and case studies, which necessarily deal with small numbers. An increasing number of scholars are suggesting, however, that narrative research offers a way for us to hear teachers’ voices and begin to understand their culture from the inside.

This book examines a variety of approaches to narrative and shows that narrative analysis can allow us to study teachers’ culture and thinking, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Use of narrative methods of research can allow us to develop descriptions of teachers’ culture which preserve their voices.

The fundamental importance of narrative can be gathered from some of the epithets used to describe it. Narrative is ‘a primary act of mind’ (Hardy, 1987, p. 1), ‘the primary scheme by means of which human existence is rendered meaningful’ (Polkinghorne, 1988, p. 11), ‘a means by which human beings represent and restructure the world’ (Mitchell, 1981, p. 8). It is ‘a specific cultural system’ (Fawcett et al., 1984, p. 20), the ‘organizing principle’ by which ‘people organize their experience in, knowledge about, and transactions with the social world’ (Bruner, 1990, p. 35). When people tell stories, anecdotes and other kinds of narratives they are engaged in ‘a perceptual activity that organizes data into a special pattern which represents and explains experience’ (Branigan, 1992, p. 3). By studying oral accounts of personal experience we can examine the tellers’ representations and explanations of experience. Thus Chafe (1990) sees narratives ‘as overt manifestations of the mind in action: as windows to both the content of the mind and its ongoing operations.’ (p. 79). Narrative analysis can, therefore, be seen as opening a window on the mind, or, if we are analyzing narratives of a specific group of tellers, as opening a window on their culture. With this recognition of the importance of narrative as a major semiotic mode it is perhaps not surprising that some scholars have come to regard ‘narratology’ as an independent discipline studying the theory of narrative texts (Todorov, 1969; Prince, 1982; Bal, 1985; Chatman, 1988). More usually, researchers have regarded narrative as a field on which a number of disciplines, each with its own focus, converge.

In this way Toolan (1988) treats narrative from the perspectives of literary theory and sociolinguistics, Hendricks (1973) views it in terms of folklore and linguistics, while van Dijk (1984) analyzes narratives by combining psychological and sociolinguistic models. Brewer (1985) explores the implications of narrative research for education by linking psychological with anthropological findings, while Coles (1989) does so by examining narrative in psychiatry and literature. By weaving psychological and literary themes, Bruner (1986 and 1990) presents sharp insights into narrative, which are widely quoted in educational contexts. Polkinghorne (1988) examines narrative in history, literature, psychology and philosophy to seek insights for practitioners who work with narrative knowledge in the form of case histories and narrative explanations.

Some scholars cross the disciplinary boundaries by working with others in another discipline. Thus de Beaugrande and Colby (1979) bring together linguistics and anthropology in their work on narrative, Labov and Fanshel (1977) collaborate from linguistic and psychotherapeutic backgrounds and Kintsch and van Dijk (1983) bring their linguistic and cognitive psychology expertise to bear on narrative study. Contributors to Sarbin’s volume (1986) and Britton’s and Pellegrini’s collection of papers (1990) move from starting points in psychology to range over issues in psychiatry, child development, literacy, discourse and the history of science.

Given such numerous multidisciplinary efforts at narrative research over two decades it seems unwise, and wasteful, for those engaged in narrative study in education to ignore work done in other disciplines. Yet most of the current surge of published work on narrative in education makes little reference to disciplines outside education. The potential for educational researchers to use the knowledge, draw on the insights and apply the models and findings already obtained and developed elsewhere is enormous. To realize at least part of this potential we need to have some familiarity with work on narrative done in other disciplines.

Chapter 2 of this book surveys some of the current approaches to narrative and the study of teaching. Some methods of using narrative among teachers are examined, including personal journals, personal histories, collaborative biographies, autobiographies, and methods using narrative inquiry and curriculum stories. To broaden the base for considering narrative analysis in education the following chapters each draw on work from different disciplines.

In chapter 3 sociological and sociolinguistic models of narrative are examined. The chapter draws attention to ways in which stories arise in interaction and are often in effect jointly produced by several people. It shows how the internal structure of narratives can be analyzed and related to the social context of the telling, specifically the context of research interviews.

Chapter 4 outlines psychological approaches to narrative by focussing on the processes of understanding, recalling and summarizing stories. The constructive nature of memory is emphasized, whether people tell stories they have read in experimental situations or whether they remember real life events in natural contexts.

Some concepts of narrative from literary study are delineated in chapter 5. While literary theory has focussed primarily on novels and short stories, a number of scholars have paid detailed attention to oral stories in order to understand basic problems of narrative: how to define and describe the major characteristics of narrative.

In chapter 6 anthropological models of narrative are examined. The chapter shows how the structure, function and performance of stories may vary cross-culturally. Different cultural groups have different ways of speaking and hold different ideas about narrative.

Each of these chapters looks for implications and applications from within different disciplines for the use of methods of narrative analysis within education. A question throughout is: how might we apply insights, methods and techniques of narrative analysis to the study of teachers’ narratives? Any answers are, of course, fairly likely to be applicable to using narrative analysis as a research tool with other occupational groups or throughout the social sciences.

Chapter 7 shows an application of narrative research by reporting a detailed analysis of 123 British primary teachers’ narratives. The narratives were collected in both research interviews and natural situations. They were analyzed in different categories: teachers’ stories about children, classroom learning, humorous events and classroom disasters, and trouble with parents. Common features are found showing a broad cultural picture of the perspectives and experiences of the teachers. Several levels of narrative analysis are reported, demonstrating that narrative analysis can be used effectively as an innovative technique in educational research.

Chapter 2
Narrative and the Study of Teaching

The study of teachers’ narratives—teachers’ stories of their own experiences—is increasingly being seen as central to the study of teachers’ thinking, culture and behaviour. There are those who argue that it is crucial to understand these aspects of teachers’ lives if current efforts at improvements and reforms of a number of educational systems around the world are to be effective. Any real change in the curriculum is not likely to be carried through unless teachers’ perceptions and experiences are taken into account. Among these advocates is Louden (1991): ‘The teacher is the ultimate key to educational change and school improvement... Teachers don’t merely deliver the curriculum. They develop it, define it and reinterpret it too. It is what teachers think, what teachers believe and what teachers do at the level of the classroom that ultimately shapes the kind of learning that young people get’ (p. vi).

To improve educational systems, curriculum reforms and classroom practice, therefore, we need to know more about teachers’ perspectives. We need to know how teachers themselves see their situation, what their experience is like, what they believe and how they think. In short, we need to know more about teachers’ culture, from the inside. This is an important area of education which until recently has received little attention from researchers.

This book proposes that the analysis of teachers’ narratives can be used as an innovative methodology to study such questions of teachers’ culture, experience and beliefs. To appreciate this methodology it is necessary to understand the importance of teachers’ narratives. Then it is vital to know something about how narratives work, socially and psychologically, and to see how narratives are structured. With this kind of foundation, we shall be in a strong position to examine methods of narrative analysis and apply them to current research concerns about teaching.

This chapter takes up the first of these points, looking at some of the reasons why teachers’ narratives have become prominent among the concerns of many researchers and seeing how narrative analysis is currently being developed in education. Later chapters will look for further knowledge and insights about narrative by surveying approaches to narrative from a number of social science disciplines. A detailed application of narrative research to teachers’ narratives is given in the final chapter which focusses on the author’s study of nearly 1000 British primary teachers’ narratives.

Three current trends of research about teachers point to the importance of teachers’ narratives. These trends are centred around the concepts of ‘reflection’, the nature of teachers’ knowledge, and ‘voice’.

Reflection

Reflection is a concept which has been much discussed in teacher education of late. There are, however, different views of what the term means. Schwab (1971) argued that it is theory applied to action; ‘deliberation’ involves problem-solving by drawing on the greatest number of genuinely pertinent concerns. More influential has been Schon’s (1983 and 1987) concept of ‘reflection on action’ where theory emerges from the knowledge base generated from action or earlier experience. Others have sought to develop the implications of ‘reflective teaching’ (Zeichner and Liston, 1987; Pollard and Tann, 1987; Tabachnik and Zeichner, 1991) or of ‘reflective learning’ (Boyd and Fales, 1983) and ‘reflective practice’ (Sergiovanni, 1985) for training teachers. These notions are often traced back to Dewey’s (1938b) notion of reflective action, where teachers are encouraged to act with intent by reflecting systematically on their experience. Indeed, Dewey (1910 and 1938a) defined thinking and logic as the reflective reconstruction of experience, a phrase which also neatly describes narrative.

Of the various strategies currently being used to encourage reflection, two stand out as having a narrative nature: keeping personal journals or logs and writing personal histories and autobiographies. Both of these strategies essentially ask teachers to narrate their experience as a way of reflecting on it and learning from it.

Personal journals are advocated as a means of promoting reflective teaching by forcing the writers to learn about what they know, what they feel, what they do (and how they do it) and why they do it (Yinger and Clark, 1981 quoted in Maas, 1991, p. 215). The writing of a journal is ‘both constructing experience and reconstructing it’ (Holly, 1989, p. 76). Guided by a tutor or supervisor, this enables the writer—as a student teacher or an experienced teacher—to view experiences in broader educational contexts. Journal writers become aware not only of their perspectives on children, classrooms and learning but also to ‘learn about the lenses through which they are viewing children and teaching’ (ibid, p. 75). As Grumet (1990) puts it, ‘To reread the journal is to see oneself seeing’ (p. 321). Thus the process of reading and rereading the journal after some interval of time should, it is hoped, bring awareness of the writer’s perspectives on education, the ability to notice what children are learning etc. and to become aware of how these things are themselves developing.

In this vein, Maas (1991) gets small groups of students to tell stories about their teaching, from memory or from notes in journals. These are collected, discussed and redirected back to the students through a newsletter. They become part of a dialogue with peers and supervisor. The supervisor also responds to stories written in journals. This interaction of reflection, telling and audience reaction may be more significant in fostering reflection, Maas suggests, than the cognitive benefits of writing alone.

Similarly, White (1991) gets students to tell ‘war stories’, and to listen to those of an experienced teacher, in order to encourage them to reflect on their practice as a means of becoming aware of their central premises about teaching.

Connelly and Clandinin (1988, pp. 44-8) use storytelling as a tool for teachers to reflect on personal practical knowledge. They ask teachers to write three detailed, shareable stories of themselves in the classroom. These are then shared in pairs with teachers they trust, to ask how the stories express a view of learners, subject content, teaching, classroom relationships and the educational context. Finally larger collections of stories are examined to search for patterns.

Richert (1991) uses ‘case methods’—descriptions of actual teaching situations—in the same way: ‘studying cases actually relies on a dialectic between events and meanings, practice and theory. We learn from the narrative as we reflect on the content and make sense if it based on what we know and believe … cases are stories that help us learn about classroom life’ (pp. 140-1). All these approaches are essentially using narrative accounts to teach teacher reflection.

The benefits of writing a personal journal depend on the honesty and sincerity of the writer and on the sensitivity and responsiveness of the reader or supervisor. To some extent they depend on whether, and how, the writer re-reads what has been written and reads and responds to a supervisor’s or peers’ comments. This implies that both parties are working within an interactive model of training or teacher development, where learning takes place in interaction between participants. It is often the case, however, that students and teachers approach education courses with a transmission model in mind, expecting the supervisor or lecturer to explain or demonstrate methodology or subject content. Journal writing seems much more interactive than this. The sequence may be: classroom activity—reflection and writing—someone’s response to the writing—joint construction of interpretation—next classroom activity.

Personal histories—accounts of first-hand experiences of learning and of being in a school—are ‘an important and powerful dimension in our pedagogical thinking’ (Knowles and Holt-Reynolds, 1991, p. 87). This strategy of asking students to write personal histories of education assists new teachers to become aware of their own belief system, ‘an initial perspective against which they can begin to make personal choices about how they will behave as teachers’ (ibid). It draws on students’ many years of observing and participating in classrooms, as pupils, and attempts to make key aspects of teaching explicit through narrative.

Louden (1991, p. 149) worked alongside a classroom teacher in an effort to understand how teachers’ knowledge changes over time. He noted how teachers’ personal reflection in personal history and story is aimed at achieving a deeper, clearer understanding of the teaching situation. It typically involves replay and rehearsal of professional action, the review of classroom events through stories. The role of narrative is clear in his comment: ‘Because our teaching was such a stream of unreflective experience I’ve needed to replay these stories in order to make meaning of the experiences we shared. These stories may not be very technical… but they were stories which needed to be told if the experience were to contribute to our development as teachers’ (p. 172).

In this view, the act of narrating one’s experience as a teacher focusses reflection on key classroom events and helps the teller of the story to make sense of what has happened. The experience is relived in the context of relevant questions: How did this happen? What was the cause of that? What might have happened if …? It is reenacted in response to audience comments. Thus at its best reflection through narrative effectively doubles the value of the original experience—an efficient approach to teacher development.

Teachers’ Knowledge

The nature of teachers’ knowledge has also been linked to teachers’ narratives. Explorations of what teachers know, how they think and learn professionally or make decisions in the classroom is a clearly developing major strand of research about teaching (Calderhead, 1987 and 1988). Perhaps surprisingly, we do not know much about what teachers know. Even more importantly, we do not know much about how they come to learn. Yet what teachers know and learn is clearly crucial to our understanding of educational processes and how children may be taught.

Teachers’ classroom knowledge can be thought of as ‘high context knowledge’ in the sense that most of the relevant information necessary to interpret what teachers say is either in the physical context or internalized in the person. Relatively little of it needs to be expressed explic...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 Narrative and the Study of Teaching
• Chapter 3 Sociological and Sociolinguistic Models of Narrative
• Chapter 4 Psychological Models of Narrative
• Chapter 5 Literary Models of Narrative
• Chapter 6 Anthropological Models of Narrative
• Chapter 7 Primary Teachers’ Narratives: One Thousand Stories from the Classroom
• References
• Index