A Narrative Approach to Teaching and Learning Democracy in Formal Education: a Theoretical Exploration

Author(s):

Isolde De Groot(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

27. Didactics - Learning and Teaching

Format:

Paper

Session Information

27 SES 02 B, Contents in Teaching and Learning: Religion, Citizenship and Democracy

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-08

15:15-16:45

Room:

202.Oktatóterem [C]

Chair:

Carol Taylor

Contribution

Introduction

In the last decade, educational scholars have built curriculum frameworks for intercultural, religious, moral and democratic citizenship education that complement cognitive approaches with participatory, experience based, dialogical, reflexive and interpretive approaches (Fielding and Moss 2012; Mazza 2014; Oser Althof & Higgins-D’Alessandro 2008; Veugelers 2011). Applying different teaching strategies not only enables educational professionals to serve students with different learning styles. It also widens the scope of educational aims: the various developments and learning processes that educational professionals might seek to cultivate.

In our research, we develop a theoretical framework for narrative teaching and learning in democratic citizenship education. As Clark & Rossiter (2008) describe, narrative learning theory builds on knowledge about learning as located in the life world; experiential learning; constructivism; situated learning; and a critical cultural perspective on learning. Typical for a narrative learning approach, they argue, is that that it “connects experiential learning and the notion of narrative as a sense-making medium” (Clark 2010, 5). Whilst scholars in adult education, higher education and religious education have contributed to the theory and practice of narrative teaching and learning for professional and religious development, a framework for narrative teaching and learning in democratic citizenship education is still lacking.

This paper presents the first findings of a theoretical inquiry into possible and legitimate strategies for narrative teaching and learning for thick democratic citizenship (TDC) education. In particular, we present three sets of narrative teacher strategies that educational professionals in vocational education, upper secondary education and higher education can utilize in this context.

Theoretical framework

In general, narrative learning can be defined as ‘developing one’s self-identity’ (Goodson 2013). Based on an earlier inquiry into Dutch adolescents’ democratic citizenship engagement (De Groot, Goodson & Veugelers 2014b) and related explorative theoretical inquiries we here identify three key components of a located ‘democratic citizenship narrative’: democratic citizenship philosophy; civic self-images; and narratives about one’s democratic citizenship experiences. Democratic citizenship philosophy is defined as one’s view on how one, and citizens in general, can and should contribute to the democratic process. Self-image is defined as the conglomerate of one’s experiences of one’s place in the civic communities that one is part of and one’s ‘sense of connections to different civic communities and the civic roles individuals play within each community’ (IEA 2007: 18). and ‘narratives about one’s democratic citizenship experiences’ refers to one’s learning experiences with democratic practices (Biesta 2011) and narratives and to how people make sense of these experiences, how they are lived.

Typical for TDC-education, in our view (see also: De Groot, 2013) is that educational professionals not only teach about democracy and organize participatory experiences in existing democratic practices and procedures, but also guide students in the process of giving meaning to their citizenship in a high-modern democratic and pluralist society and challenging their understandings of, and their willingness to help address civic and political issues on the macro and meso level that affect the daily lives of different groups of citizens. We also suggested that guidance in meaning making processes can be offered, amongst others, through cultivating students’ democratic citizenship narratives. In this paper, we theorize about possibilities for narrative teaching in this context.

Method

The explorative inquiry that is reported is part of a larger study that aims to develop a framework for narrative teaching and learning in TDC-education. First step in this study is a literature review on existing theories on narrative teaching and learning in relation to personal, citizenship and professional development. Literature on narrative pedagogy, teaching and learning and various types of education that focus on personal, professional and citizenship development, e.g. civic, moral and value education, and in relation to democratic learning and democratic citizenship that has been collected with google scholar searches is scrutinized to gain insight into benefits and modes of narrative learning as identified per narrative key word and per educational field. Second step is the construction a framework for narrative teaching and learning in TDC-education based on the insights from the review, our framework for TDC-education and our conception of democratic citizenship narratives. This paper reports the findings of an examination of benefits and aims as distinguished by Goodson and Gill, two scholars who seem to have theorized most extensively about narrative learning and the role of narratives in the development of self-identity or ‘narrative self’ in high modern societies (Goodson 2013; Goodson and Gill; 2011). Building on three main aspects of their theory on narrative learning, we delineated three sets of strategies for narrative teaching in TDC-education in upper high school, vocational education and higher education in relation to these three aspects.

Expected Outcomes

The first set of strategies resulted from this research builds on their distinction between three types of narrative learning (Goodson & Gill 2011). Through introducing students to other people’s narratives about their lived citizenship for example, teachers can help students to imagine different ways to make sense of one’s democratic learning experiences and different ways to contribute to processes of humanisation. Second, through learning in the process of narrating, teachers in TDC-education might encourage their students to co-construct their narratives about their democratic learning experiences. The process of (re)structuring different storylines and voices regarding one’s sense of connectedness to different communities also enables students to further develop their sense of civic-self. Third, teachers in TDC-education can teach students how to (de)construct their citizenship story: to challenge their sense of their citizenship responsibilities, their actual participation and related values and structural conditions. Through deconstructing students’ narratives about first and second hand democratic learning experiences, teachers can also help students’ to delineate alternative values and alternative courses of action with regard to engaging in the democratic process. Overall, this typology sheds light on the fact that narrative modes of learning like film and books can also be employed for narrative learning purposes. With regard to the desirability of cultivating young people’s democratic citizenship narratives in formal education we argue, building on our findings and the work of Berlin (1958) and Bruner and Haste (1987), that educational professionals have a responsibility to introduce students to a variety of narratives about citizenship and democracy, and to help students become resilient to colonizing forces and co-optation of one’s interests. This means that we also advocate cultivating a type of narrative capacity that generates resilience on an (inter)personal level and that can support the moral and political vitality of democratic communities.

References

Berlin, I. (1958). Two concepts of liberty. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Biesta, Gert. 2011. Learning Democracy in School and Society: Education, Lifelong Learning, and the Politics of Citizenship. Rotterdam: Sense publishers. Bruner, J., & Haste, H. (1987). Making Sense: the Child’s Construction of the World. London: Methuen. Clark, M.C. (2010). Narrative learning: Its contours and its possibilities, New directions for adult and continuing education, 126: 61 - 70 Clark, M.C. & Rossiter, M. (2008). Narrative learning in Adulthood, New directions for adult and continuing education, 119: 61 - 70 Fielding, M., & Moss, P. (2012). Radical democratic education. Paper, ASA conference, retrieved from:http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/ASA/Fielding%20and%20Moss%20Real%20Utopia%20Proposal%20--%20democratic%20education%20.pdf Goodson, I. (2013). Developing narrative theory: Life histories and personal representation. London: Routledge. Goodson, I. & Gill, S. (2011). Narrative pedagogy: Life history and learning. New York: Peter Lang. Groot, I. de (2013). Adolescents democratic engagement: A qualitative study into the lived citizenship of adolescents in the Dutch democratic pluralist society. Dissertation. Utrecht: University of Humanistic Studies. Groot, I. de, Goodson, I. & Veugelers, W.M.M.H. (2014a). Dutch adolescents ’ democratic narratives: ‘I know what democracy means, not what I think of it’. Cambridge Journal of Education. 44, 2: 271-292 IEA. (2007). International Civic and Citizenship Education Stud: Assessment framework. Amsterdam: IEA. Kahne, J., Middaugh, E. & CIRCLE. (2008). Democracy for some: The civic opportunity gap in high school. Circle working paper 59, Centre for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement: http://www.civicyouth.org. Kerr, D., Sturman, L., Schulz, W., Burge, B. & International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. (2010). ICCS 2009 European Report: Civic Knowledge, Attitudes, and Engagement among Lower-Secondary Students in 24 European Countries. Amsterdam: IEA. Mazza, G. (2014). Signposts: Policy and practice for teaching about religions and non-religious world views in intercultural education. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing. Oser, F., W. Althof and A. Higgins-D’Alessandro (2008). The Just Community approach to moral education: system change or individual change? Journal of Moral Education 37, 3: 395-415 Veugelers (2011). A Humanist Perspective on Moral Development and Citizenship Education. In: W. Veugelers (Ed.) Education and Humanism: linking Autonomy and Humanity. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers: 9-34.

Author Information

Isolde De Groot (presenting / submitting)

University of Humanistic Studies

Education

Utrecht

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