A Narrative Approach to Development: Implications for Adult Education

Abstract

Adult educators have relied heavily on stage and phase theories of human development to understand adults as learners and the place of learning in their lives. Such models of development have been questioned in terms of the developmental ends posited and the related implications for practitioners. This article describes a narrative approach to adult development and suggests that such a perspective holds rich potential for enhancing our understanding of adult learners and the possible roles educators might play in learners' developmental processes. Key orientations that constitute a narrative approach are discussed; they focus on narrative knowing and meaning making, and the temporal, retrospective, contextual nature of narrative development.

Science fiction reduces the eeriness of android robots: A field experiment

“…Several scholars have argued that stories are the instrument through which people create meaning of experience and identity (Bruner, 1990;Kerby, 1991;Polkinghorne, 1988;Rossiter, 1999;Sarbin, 1986). Narrative form-including elements of plot, character, setting, scene, and theme-helps us to organize single experiences of our life and relate them to each other (McAdams, 1985;Polkinghorne, 1988;Rossiter, 1999). In classical narratives, events are linked to each other as cause to effect (Chatman, 1980).…”

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“…[28,[63][64][65][66][67][68][69] Storytelling is seen as a mechanism for sense and meaning making in education, [28,67,70] wherein listeners recognizing their position in relation to a story. [28,66,67,[71][72][73][74][75][76] Storytelling has also been conceptualized as a key mechanism for providing voice, or agency, to those who are typically marginalized or not heard or understood within educational environments. [28,64,67,68,71,72,74] The Humanities literature revealed five major themes: 1) the therapeutic aspect of story; 2) sense-making and story; 3) storytelling as a potential counter to the normative; 4) the interplay between the storyteller and listener; and 5) storytelling as a potential to promote culture change.…”

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“…These findings support the idea that narrative is the means through which humans make meaning of experience (Bruner, 1990;Coher, 1982;Kerby, 1991). According to Polkinghorne (1988), apud Rossiter (1999), "Narrative is a scheme by means of which human beings give meaning to their experience of temporality and personal actions . .…”