This paper argues for narrative competence as an underlying skill neglected in educational policy makers' calls for enhanced literacy through improved reading, writing, numeracy and working with digital technology. This argument is presented in three parts. First, a genealogy of the narrative is presented by looking at technological developments, culture and experience. Second, revisiting Bernstein, narrative competency is connected to pedagogic practice. Third, a proposal will be made to develop narrative competence as a research program capable of underpinning literacy in an age of open learning. Part one: without defining narratives in a once and for all manner, a genealogy of different forms of narrative is attempted and inspired by the work of Walter Benjamin in his essay, The Storyteller. He connected narrative competency with the cultural appropriation of technology in different periods. Thus, for the early Greeks narrative competence rested upon oral experience. For Socrates, to take a famous example, the oral conversation in the pursuit of truth was the preserve of those educated in philosophy, and followed a question and answer format. In Greco-Roman times, narrative competence becomes entwined with textual forms of communication and authority. Cicero outlined this connection in his advice to would-be practitioners of rhetoric in politics, science and law. With the Bible and later with the birth of the novel, narrative competence rested less upon a mixture of the oral and ability to read texts, and more upon textual interpretation or hermeneutics as it has been called. Once again, the experience was the preserve of those who attended school and were able to learn to read. With the birth of photography, narrative competency to read images becomes important and different to the linear demands of the text. At the same time, this form of narrative competence is more democratic and open to all, even if images can attempt to manipulate the kind of meanings communicated. Lastly, with the arrival of the internet, narrative competency has combined the visual of image with textual. Take for example constructive hypertext; it can be navigated in multiple ways as the user constructs different narratives in virtual space.Part two: draws upon Bernstein's essay, Social Class and Pedagogic Practice, where he suggests pedagogic practice is framed in social relations of hierarchy between teacher and student, pacing, sequencing and criteria. This insight is applied to the different narrative forms discussed above and the consequences for visible and invisible pedagogy in educational settings are outlined. Thus, to take an example, the narrative competency required in the reading of written texts is more strictly paced and sequenced than the narrative competency required in the encounter with hypertext. A point also explored by Kress in his book, Literacy in the Media Age. With respect to hierarchy, the social relations of the pedagogic situation are potentially more relaxed and open with the case of constructive hypertext. This does not, however mean, that the pedagogy is less invisible or that that the elaboration of its codes are less important.Part three: this section of the paper proposes a research program (Lakatos), rather than a paradigm (Kuhn), drawing together pedagogic practice, narrative competency and technology. The core assertion is that literacy rests upon a capricious understanding of narrative and the competency it engenders. A genealogical approach has been chosen to preserve this flexibility and also to contribute to the ongoing debate on open learning.