Briony Beaver: ‘Do you have that as well?’ Teacher stories and teacher trainer stories: Sharing and learning

Teacher stories ‘put flesh on the bones of theory’. This is the relevance Briony attributes to teacher stories, which she grouped into:

- sacred stories (what experts claim is right)
- cover stories (what teachers tell when no safe community for telling stories exists)
- secret stories (the real stories of classroom practice, possible only in ‘safe havens’, where authentic relationships can thrive) 
 

Narratives are specific and describe a critical incident. They often lead one into another, thus encouraging the formation of communities of practice. In this sense, narratives help us learn through active engagement in the world, by establishing informal professional dialogues with others and by tapping into our participative memory (personal experiences are always more easy to remember).

Briony briefed us about some of her narrative-related research in progress. Her findings served to encourage teacher trainers to have a go at using this technique for their students’ professional development. The majority of the participants in her research reported interest of their colleagues’ stories and enjoyed sharing their own narratives. Story-telling seems to make them more comfortable with their colleagues and help them eliminate some fears because they realise others have them, too. The subjects also reported becoming conscious of their own subconscious teaching patterns and gaining insights into new ways of going about teaching. Vertical exchanges with their more experienced colleagues proved particularly helpful, as they, too, still reported puzzle/problem stories in their classrooms. For the majority of the subjects story-telling resulted in very varied learning: they articulated explicit ‘learning points’ and perceived relevance and analogies in their peers’ stories. For many of them clarifying purposes and gains as a follow-up to the story-telling proved to be quite a different experience from, say, informal exchanges or lone reflection.

Briony wrapped up her session by underlining once again the extent to which story-telling validates personal knowledge and deepens and enriches reflective practice, thus potentially serving to bridge the gap between teacher beliefs and practice.