The paper discusses narrative learning of people, who are working with refugees at the non-governmental organization in Lithuania. The narrative learning is revealed in the personal narratives and narrative interactions of workers at the chosen NGO. The purpose of this paper is threefold. Firstly, it aims to highlight the importance of exploring narrative learning of people working at NGOs working with refugees. Secondly, it presents the contextualized empirical data of narrative research. Thirdly, the paper presents 3 thematically rich narrative portraits of the NGO workers, which illustrate various aspects of narrative learning and the potential for transformation through reflection, dialogue, and the re-construction of the self in the work environment.
Narrative learning is associated with the method of learning through stories and the process of learning, when meanings and understandings are created through narratives (De Groot, 2018). Employees of NGOs often share stories in their work and daily interactions and storytelling is frequently used as a tool in their daily work practices, however these stories are often heard only within the remits of organizations. Narratives are frequently revealed as personal stories of employees, which often are not visible and considered as everyday stories (Bathmaker, 2010). NGOs also play an important role in defining the identity aspects of the people with whom they work with (Szczepanikova, 2010). They often rely on engaged communities to disseminate work stories, and modern media platforms (such as Facebook) help to reach wider audiences and share narratives about their work, but limited communication and financial resources of local NGOs often limit access to larger audiences (Holohan, 2019). Narratives can also reveal, how professional and cultural identity of employees is constructed (Riessman, 2008). There is a lack of educational theories, which reveal the processes of learning in non-governmental organizations (Le Clus, M., 2011; Gohlich, M, 2016). Therefore, such narrative research could be particularly valuable for educational research as it can reveal, what narratives are emerging at the NGO working with refugees, how people are using narratives and learn in the work situations, what helps or hinders their growth, how they construct their understandings of self and learning at work and how work environment, social and cultural context might affect their stories and learning through narration.
In this paper I refer to the ideas of social constructionism and understand narratives as constructs, which are created in a specific time and context. I discuss various contextual layers of emerging narratives and pay attention to social relationships, interactions, and the specific context of the chosen NGO, where narratives unfold. I acknowledge my positionality and subjectivity choosing the organization and reflect, how my role as a practitioner -researcher affect, what people tell me and what impressions they try to make and the process, how I select and interpret the narrative and observational data. The paper discusses and presents 3 chosen contextualized narrative portraits of employees of the organization, which reveal various aspects of narrative learning and different narrative learning styles. I use the theoretical and methodological framework presented by I. Goodson (2010) to present narrative portraits and analyze narrative learning aspects. Presenting narrative portraits, I discuss the emerging narrative themes, narrative learning styles and attempt to reveal, how employees of the non-governmental organization construct the narratives about their experiences and how they use various narratives to learn and develop.