Storytelling as dialogue: how teachers construct professional knowledge

Abstract

This study shows how a group of English language lecturers use storytelling as a form of professional dialogue. The aim of the study is to highlight the dialogic role of storytelling in supporting the construction of lecturers' professional knowledge and not to identify lecturers' professional knowledge. In a professional development project, 12 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 and proposes further research into the dialogic capacity of storytelling in a professional development context.

Lifelong learning through digital storytelling in corporate training

“…This idea represents a view of narrative as a dialogue and challenges the notion of history as individual construction. Savvidou (2010) points out that if we observe the everyday social interactions, we find that the fact of telling a story of personal experience is not presented as a monologue, but as part of an interactional event, a conversation in which stories are mutually constructed by participants. In this process, including the roles of the storyteller and recipient are interchangeable.…”

“…Here, we also want to emphasize the concept of narrative of Savvidou (2010), for whom the idea of storytelling is inherently dialogical, so whenever a story is told, it causes a response. That is, the stories we tell are shaped by the answers of real or potential interlocutors.…”

“…It is also important to note that with respect to the use of DS in the context of corporate training, Savvidou (2010) highlights the importance of the concept of "dialogue" in the narrative. According to the author, although little attention is given to the concept of narrative as a dialogue in educational contexts, this is a rich front of research in organizational and communication research.…”

Polifonía discursiva y procesos de cambio en los formadores de docentes: ¿Qué voces movilizan sus prácticas de enseñanza?

“…Para este autor el sentido se produce y circula a través del lenguaje que es polifónico por definición ya que materializa un conjunto de voces que provienen de distintos orígenes, tiempos, culturas y contextos sociales inscritos al interior de éste. En cambio, la tendencia en el campo investigativo de los docentes se ha focalizado en el relato de sus experiencias desde una perspectiva de naturaleza más bien monológica, representada principalmente en una voz: el relato de su historia como profesor (Savvidou, 2010). Por ende, falta el desarrollo de estudios de narrativas de profesores desde una perspectiva dialógica, que incorporen a través del análisis de sus discursos, no sólo la voz del docente formador entendida como el resultado de un proceso de formación y desarrollo profesional, sino como la construcción y re-significación constante del tejido discursivo que incorpora, a través diversos mecanismos de relación, las voces internamente convincentes de personas e instituciones que han incidido e inciden en este proceso.…”

Application of Storytelling Techniques in Improving Speaking Skills in Elementary School Students

“…In addition, storytelling activities in the learning process have an important role in the development of students psychologically through the disclosure of motivation and character of the story being revealed (Nguyen, Stanley, Stanley, & Wang, 2015;Frude & Killick, 2011). Storytelling is seen as a way for teachers to implement their knowledge and understanding in the world of education (Savvidou, 2010). In fact, several studies have revealed that storytelling can have a positive impact on improving students' ability to communicate, which is seen in the mastery of vocabulary and understanding story content (Caminotti & Gray, 2012;Zare et al 2016).…”