Narrative and Education 1: Only About Navel Gazing?

 At the beginning and the end of the day, I’ll always believe that narrative has a solid and central place in our lives.

Eminent psychologist and educator, Jerome Bruner, has had a lot to say over the years about narrative.

In Acts of Meaning, Bruner states that “humans have a readiness or predisposition to organize experience into a narrative form, into plot structures.”

Galen Strawson, a British philosophy professor at University of Reading, reviews Jerome Bruner’s Acts of Meaning, along with Making Stories, in "Tales of the Unexpected." He criticizes Bruner for turning everything in our lives into the narrating of ourselves. Strawson suggests that Bruner believes that all "great fiction proceeds by making the familiar and ordinary strange again.” He suggests Bruner is saying that in every thought and act humans are constantly engaged in making tales out of ourselves and our lives.

I disagree with Strawson’s interpretation of Bruner’s idea of narrative. As mentioned above, I do see narrative as central to human living.

It’s not just because everyone loves a good story. Rather, narrative is front and central to humans because narrative is all about making sense of things—everyday.

Unlike Bruner, I’m not sure that we are constantly creating ourselves by way of narrative. I believe narrative is central because it gives a structure to our lives. And narrative also ferries us beyond our own small lives to connect us with wider worlds.

Because I’m convinced that narrative plays a central role in education—in how we learn—I see our readiness for narrative as a good way of becoming educable. Maybe even the best way—for we never outgrow this desire for a good story. 

I started this research into the place of narrative in our lives and in education about fifteen years ago. “Story” hasn’t let go of me since. I hope to engage here in a conversation with others interested in the reach of narrative into ways in which we learn.