Self-Narrative and Pedagogy: Stories of Experience within Teaching and Learning

In this book, teachers from a variety of backgrounds reflect upon their journeys into and within teaching to discuss the impact of their diverse experiences on the ways in which they teach. The authors adopt a variety of autoethnographic approaches in telling stories of transition and profound transformation as they each discuss how certain events in their lives have shaped their professional identities and methods of teaching. In telling their stories they also tell stories of the culture and process of education. This offers the opportunity to consider the narratives as examples of how individuals and groups respond in different ways to institutional and national policies on education. In these chapters, the authors offer illumination from a number of perspectives, of how practitioners of education make meaning of their lives and work in our changing times. By capturing these personal stories, this book will inform and support readers who are studying to become teachers and those already working in education by developing their understanding and empathy with the role. Autoethnography can develop self-knowledge and understanding in the reader and writer of such texts, offering unique insights and individual ways of being that will benefit students and staff in a range of educational settings. This book values the telling and sharing of stories as a strategy for enabling teachers to learn from one another and help them to feel more supported. The book will be useful for teachers and teacher educators, students of education, and all researchers interested in autoethnography and self-narrative.