Fellow of the Society of Education and Training (FSET QTLS)
A story about stories: an investigation into the role of storytelling in professional education
Georgina's听research aims to understand the storytelling terrain in professional education, focusing specifically on teaching and nursing practitioner-educators. Storytelling鈥檚 current situation in education appears from the literature to be somewhat patchy and inconsistent, with contrasting, and to some extent, conflicting views evident. Whilst there are strong advocates for storytelling鈥檚 usage in Higher Education across disciplines (McDrury and Alterio, 2003; Moon, 2010; Lin, 2014), there is a distinctive lack of its presence in teaching text books and teaching programmes.
Using a narrative inquiry paradigm (Spector-Mersel, 2010) and an in-depth case-study, Georgina seeks to investigate practitioner-educators鈥� perceptions of storytelling. She is developing an analytical literary approach within the narrative inquiry paradigm and exploring the theoretical foundations of storytelling via Bourdieuan (1986) and Freirian (1973) lenses. The methodology combines observations of teaching with the use of story circles (Freire, 1973) to collect 鈥榓uthentic鈥� but semi-fictional practice stories (Kara, 2006) in order to gain a unique and multi-layered perspective on storytelling in education. Participants鈥� stories will be explored alongside her autobiographical writing employing 鈥渢rickster methodology鈥�. Trickster research companions, a wolf and a raven, will be used as provocateurs and imaginary research partners, who will challenge preconceptions and help Georgina听to translate the intangible and tacit aspects of her research into tangible, explicit research stories.
