Narrative Studies In Bildung Didactics: An Outline

Author(s):

Ruhi Tyson(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

27. Didactics - Learning and Teaching

Format:

Paper

Session Information

27 SES 03 B, Critical Thinking, Citizenship and Worldview Education

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-23

17:15-18:45

Room:

NM-F103

Chair:

Meinert Arnd Meyer

Contribution

In research on education the field roughly covered by the concept of Bildung has seen a wide-ranging discussion philosophically but less has been said and done from an empirical and teacher-vocational perspective (Rittelmeyer 2012, Tyson 2015a, 2015b). Bildung includes matters such as: formation of character, ethical and aesthetic knowledge/capability, capacity for wise deliberation and reflection as well as the development of personal autonomy (Rittelmeyer 2012) and is defined here in close connection with the Aristotelian phronesis or practical wisdom (Tyson 2015b) in the sense that to afford Bildung in education, from a practical standpoint, is about a teacher’s phronesis. The theoretical framework for this is phronetic social science as articulated by Flyvbjerg (2001) and Schram (2012).

The aim is to present an outline of narratively articulated Bildung didactics, a field of research closely related to both Bildungsgangdidaktik (Gessler 1988, Meyer 2009, Trautmann 2004) and reflective practice (Schön 1983, 1987). It can be understood as building on Schön’s work at the point where he explicitly states that his aim has not been to explore “wisdom in response to the ethical dilemmas of practice” (1987:xiii).

In the outline a conceptual framework for narratively articulated Bildung didactics will be briefly presented consisting of the techne/phronesis distinction (Biesta 2013, Dunne 1993, Kinsella & Pitmann 2012), narratives as articulated practice (Clandinin & Connelly 1995, Gallagher 2010, McDrury & Alterio 2002, McEwan & Egan 1995, Moon 2010, Tyson 2015a), didactics (Uljens 1997) as an entwined practice of techne and phronesis, and finally, pedagogical imagination as the central concept in mediating between general ideas and particular practice, drawing on Schön’s (1987) idea that skilled practitioners have a repertoire of previous experiences that they reinterpret to enrich their confrontation with new situations.

The empirical basis for this draws on four recent studies. One is the biography of craftmaster Wolfgang B. (Tyson 2015a, 2015b) and his paradigmatic narratives of Bildung didactics as experienced over the course of his vocational education. Three are studies that in different ways have tried to scale the initial results from the biographical study by introducing more specific Bildung didactical question in various teacher education contexts as tasks for the teacher students. One is a study reported at ECER 2015 (Pedagogical imagination and practical wisdom: the role of good narratives in teacher education and professional development) concerned with narratives of successful conflict resolution among after-school care teachers. The second is a study with vocational teacher students and their stories of vocational Bildung experiences during their own vocational training. The third is a study with students at a nursing teacher program and their stories of existential Bildung didactical events in their experience and handling of patients’ suffering and similar matters.

It will be argued that there is a number of Bildung-related educational matters, not least in teacher education and teacher professional development, where a narrative articulation can contribute. These can be differentiated in at least five groups: enriching knowledge of vocational and subject-related tasks; conceptual development and critical reflection; advancement of practice; development of ‘practice fields’ and the articulation of patterns of Bildung affordances. In distinguishing these different ways in which Bildung as a form of practical knowledge can be enriched through narrative studies the presentation contributes to our capacity for doing systematic research in the subject area.

Method

The research design consists of single and multiple case studies where each narrative or even parts of a longer narrative (as in the biography of Mr. B.) can be viewed as a case. Each case can contribute to several different viewpoints. As argued by Flyvbjerg (2001), Larsson (2009) and Thomas (2010) there are black swan cases, paradigmatic cases, critical cases, cases that reveal patterns and information gathering cases that all hold relevance in the present context in relation to the five contributions enumerated initially. In the context of narratively articulated practical knowledge relating to the value-laden concept of Bildung, the central condition is that the narratives be of unusual success or richness (cf. eg. Kelchtermans 2015). This is in line with a phronetic perspective where social science research should contribute to the development of practice (Schram 2012), but also a matter of ensuring that the narratives can function as the case forms listed above. All of them share the common attribute of being more likely to yield new and interesting knowledge/perspectives to the extent that they deviate from the norm and the expected. The methods for documenting such cases are, for the most part, interviewing and written assignments within an educational program or professional development course. The ethical ramifications of such narratives are comparatively limited given that they focus on situations of human flourishing. To the extent that they risk exposing someone to harm they need to be adequately anonymized and care still must be taken when deciding if a narrative should be published or not. Interpretation of the narratives does not follow a specific analytical method but depends on the case perspective taken (if it is viewed as a black swan or a paradigmatic narrative for example) and on familiarity with the conceptual framework. The framework is the tool or lens through which the narratives can be understood as Bildung didactical narratives in the various ways outlined.

Expected Outcomes

Outlining the narrative approach to Bildung didactics from the perspective of practical knowledge (both as techne and phronesis) leads to the conclusion that there are at least five different areas of research and practice where such studies can contribute: • Enriching knowledge of vocational and subject-related tasks refers to the articulation of Bildung-experiences as part of working with specific tasks in school and elsewhere that are otherwise difficult to understand and evaluate beyond their techne-aspects. • Conceptual development and critical reflection is a matter of enriching Bildung-philosophy through empirical research and promoting critical reflection among scholars and practitioners in relation to Bildung didactics. • The advancement of practice is related to the enrichment of practitioners’ pedagogical imagination through an enlarged repertoire of Bildung didactical narratives. • The development of ‘practice fields’ is the accumulation of Bildung didactical narratives in a specific field of practice such as conflict resolution in primary school settings where this accumulation reaches a point at which the cases are not just single examples but taken together represent a dynamic articulation of such practice as a whole, to the extent that it is unusually wise. • Finally the articulation of patterns of Bildung affordances is a way through which empirical case studies can surface curriculum patterns that are valuable as tools for creating and modifying other curricula. All this, in turn, suggests that the approach is a valuable part of educational research and especially teacher education and professional development. Although at the present only a small number of studies have been conducted, they suggest that this is a way of surfacing practitioner wisdom, bringing the academic field of research into closer proximity with that of educational practice and contributing to a reflective practice that is more systematically driven towards advancing practice.

References

Biesta, G. (2013). “Knowledge, judgment and the curriculum: on the past, present and future of the idea of the Practical.” Journal of curriculum studies 45 (5): 684-696. Clandinin, D., and Connelly, M. (1995). Teachers’ professional knowledge landscapes. New York: Teachers College Press. Dunne, J. (1993). Back to the rough ground. Practical judgment and the lure of technique. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. Flyvbjerg, B. (2001). Making social science matter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gallagher, S. (2013). “An education in narratives.” Educational philosophy and theory, 2013 1-10. Gessler, L. (1988). Bildungserfolg im Spiegel von Bildungsbiographien. Frankfurt: Peter Lang Verlag. Kelchtermanns, G. (2015). “Learning from ‘good examples of practice’.” Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 21 (4): 361-365. Kinsella, E., and Pitman, A. (Eds.). (2012). Phronesis as professional knowledge. Practical wisdom in the professions. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Larsson, S. (2009). “A pluralist view of generalization in qualitative research.” International Journal of Research & Method in Education 32 (1): 25-38. McDrury, J., and Alterio, M. (2002). Learning through storytelling in higher education. Using reflection & experience to improve learning. London: Kogan Page. McEwan, H., and Egan, K. (Eds.). (1995). Narrative in teaching, learning, and research. New York: Teacher College Press. Meyer, M. (2009). “What is Bildungsgangdidaktik?” Rhino didactics, Zeitschrift für Bildungsgangforschung und Unterricht, vol. 28. Moon, J. (2010). Using story in higher education and professional development. New York: Routledge. Rittelmeyer, C. (2012). Bildung, ein pädagogischer Grundbegriff. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer. Schön, D. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Schön, D. (1983). The reflective practitioner. New York: Basic Books. Schram, S. (2012). “Phronetic social science: an idea whose time has come.” In Flyvbjerg, B. et al. Real social science. Applied phronesis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Thomas, G. (2010). “Doing case study: Abduction not induction, phronesis not theory.” Qualitative Inquiry 16 (7): 575-582. Trautmann, M. ed. (2004). Entwicklungsaufgaben im Bildungsgang. Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Tyson, R. (2015a). Educating for vocational excellence: the auto/biographical exploration of enacted craft pedagogy. Vocations and learning, 8(2), 229-245. Tyson, R. (2015b). Vocational Bildung in action. Licentiate thesis, Stockholm University Department of Education. Uljens, M. (1997). School didactics and learning. East Sussex: Psychology Press.

Author Information

Ruhi Tyson (presenting / submitting)

Stockholm University

Bromma

Search the ECER Programme

Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
Search for authors and in the respective field.
For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.