Education and narrative share some commonalities in principles and means, which I regarded as intersections. In order to clarify my interpretation of these intersections, they are discussed individually, contrasting their relation to educative process and to narrative. Table 1 is an attempt to present these intersections at a glance.
Figure 1: Synthesis of the intersectional principles
Principle of authorship
While in terms of narrative the notion of authorship is substantially accepted, in terms of education this notion is very often neglected or disregarded. However, it is necessary to understand that similarly to the teller/writer the learner needs to be a subject-author, in the sense of active learning as a construction that is made in an interplay between the individual and the others (Fernández, 2000). In other words, learning is the process of creation of opportunities for authorship and, simultaneously, is a means to re-locate the person in relation to the past and to project the future. In this sense, I strongly agree with Fernández (2001) when she argues that learning is an autobiographical act, which is never complete or finished. Learning requires authorship of thought. The major production is the individual identity, and a consistent self-awareness.
Principle of temporal continuity
The temporality of life is re-presented and re-signified in narrative, since “lives are lived through time and are made intelligible by being composed by narratives” (Erben, 1998, pp. 12-13), that is, narratives have a structuring role in the making sense of experiences. According to Dewey (1997, p. 25) “experience and education cannot be directly equated to each other. For some experiences are mis-educative. Any experience is mis-educative that has the effect of arresting or distorting the growth of further experience”. This statement takes into account the temporality of the experiences, as directly connected to the significance of those experiences in the view of the educative quality of them is determined by their continuity as a means to growth. In educational terms continuity relates directly with the value of experience, since that “every experience is a moving force. Its value can be judged only on the ground of what it moves toward and into” (Dewey, 1997, p. 38). In other words, the continuity is not determined by the temporality of the events but by their significance to subsequent events, therefore, educative experiences are those “that live fruitfully and creatively in subsequent experiences” (Dewey, 1997, p. 28).
The idea of continuity is also present in the concept of narrative, from the Aristotelian definition of beginning-middle-end to less linear conceptions of time. According to Riessman (1993), what often characterises narrative is a sequential account, a chronological sequence, but there are events that may not be always chronological, therefore, their sequence might be driven differently, which concur with the concept of ‘monumental time’ that occurs in fictional accounts and is described by Ricoeur (1984a, p.106) as “more complex than simple chronological time”.
Principle of empowerment
One major aspect of education that underpins my praxis is the conception of agency which underpins the philosophical and political Freirean postulations regarding to education as potentially empowering (Freire, 1970;, 1981;, 1996), together with a need to promote the practice of freedom (Freire, 1967) and the development of critical consciousness (Freire, 1980;, 1995), as a means for emancipation, liberation and democratic participation. If it is true that empowerment is an educational principle, it can also be true for narrative, because “the narrative should be underpinned unequivocally by the aim of empowerment” (Goodley et al., 2004, p. 106). One relevant example of narratives as empowerment is that described by Lawthom in Goodley et al. (2004, p. 106), she states that the life story research that she does “explicitly seeks to optimise the relationship between life stories, an agenda for empowerment and inclusion and the everyday contexts in which exclusions of people with impairments are played out”.
To summarise, both education and narrative are constructs of and for empowerment. On one hand, when an educative scheme considers the learner as an agent, an active subject and an interactive being, the empowerment of the learner is a natural consequence. On the other hand, the intrinsic power of narrative can be strongly empowering when used purposively. Moreover, the use of narrative, especially biographical and autobiographical accounts, in educational situations is notably emancipatory.
Principle of Interaction through communication
Taking the interactionist model (Vygotsky, 1978) together with the notion of scaffold (Bruner, 1983) into account, it is recognisable that the interpersonal and intrapersonal levels of interactions determine appropriations and the cognitive development. There is a close relation between the social and the individual development. It is also plausible that interactions are determinant to experiences and consequently to their storied accounts. “An experience is always what it is because of a transaction taking place between an individual and what, at the time, constitutes his (sic) environment” (Dewey, 1997, p. 43). Environment is understood as whatever conditions that “interact with personal needs, desires, purposes, and capacities to create the experience which is had” (Dewey, 1997, p. 44). However, the mere co-existence is not a guarantee for ideal educative situations, because “relationships with significant others, including teachers and learners, have a major role to play in shaping the way we think about ourselves and how we construct our achievements and aptitudes” (Collins et al., 2002, p.43). Similarly to the need for educative experiences, it is necessary educative interactions. “People need other people to learn in an intrinsically motivating, social process in which challenges are faced, mistakes made, helpful feedback given and new attempts made leading to success” (Collins et al., 2002, p. 168).
Underpinning all interactions there is communication. As human beings, we interact through communication in a wide range of forms, using a variety of signs, symbols and languages. “Language is not to be seen as being ‘about’, as ‘referring to’, but as creative of objects” (Clough, 2002, p. 16), equally, we do not only use language to speak about things, but the language we use speaks about us (Ball, 1990). There is interplay between the interaction styles and how language is used to bond them. The most significant form of bonding interactions is through dialogue, which is a form of communication based on a “relation of empathy between two poles who are engaged in a joint search” (Freire, 1983, p.45), that is, the conversations based on mutual virtue of values such respect, humility and trust are the basic construct to meaningful interactions.
The dialogue is also present in the narrative act. However, written narratives can reveal new possibilities of conversations, in different levels of interactions. “A text opens up an audience, which is unlimited, while the relationship of dialogue is a closed relationship. The text is open to whoever knows to read, and whose potential reader is everyone” (Ricoeur and Valdés, 1991, p. 442). In addition to that, the reader may develop a direct connection with the text through lived experiences that are recollected through the reading. In this sense, there is an encounter between the reader’s memories with the writer’s, rather than an encounter between reader and writer, or listener and teller – since the similar identification can occur during oral accounts.
Narrative and educative process: a reflection on possible intersections
Introduction: ‘I have read your romance on the subject of education’
1. Narrative and Education: comparing the concepts
1.1. Examining the concept of education
1.2. Examining the concept of narrative
2. Narrative and Education: four non-arbitrary intersections
2.1. Principle of authorship
2.2. Principle of temporal continuity
2.3. Principle of empowerment
2.4. Principle of Interaction through communication
3. Conclusion: beginning and finishing from my standpoint
3.1. Personal account: autobiography as an emancipatory learning experience
3.2. Conclusion: how I regard my understanding of narrative as an educative process