Narrative Research Into the Possibilities of Classroom-Generated Stories in English Teacher Education

Abstract

This paper summarizes a narrative inquiry carried out with forty volunteer undergraduate participants attending the course Overall Communication, in the English Teacher Education Program in the School of Humanities of the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Argentina. It addresses their family/academic identities and personal practical knowledge—as articulated in their written narratives about a class activity concerning the telling of “unheroic” lives—produced by these students while exploring heroes in Irish films. Narrative interpretation of these undergraduates’ work yields categories of analysis concerning story protagonists’ origins, moral values, types of knowledge generated, and implications for English teacher education. Finally, the paper discusses some issues its findings raise in this field.

Keywords

• Initial English teacher education
• narrative inquiry
• pre-service teachers’ identities