Storytelling as Dialogue: How Teachers Construct Professional Knowledge
Source: Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, Volume 16, Issue 6, 2010, p. 649 - 664.
The purpose of this study is to highlight the dialogic role of storytelling in supporting the construction of lecturers' professional knowledge.
In a professional development project, 12 English language lecturers created digital stories about their experiences of professional development.
These stories were shared with colleagues who then responded with their own digital stories.
A narrative framework was used to analyse stories for the types of connections lecturers made between stories.
Five dialogic processes were identified: connecting, echoing, developing, questioning and constructing.
Excerpts of stories are used to demonstrate how lecturers construct professional knowledge through storytelling.
The study concludes by outlining the potential and limitations of storytelling as an approach to professional development.