Rapid societal transformations are redefining professional landscapes, placing social professions in a need of continuous professional development to rethink their identities and practices (Dvir, 2024). Professional development is here seen as a learning process continuing throughout one’s professional life and shaped through meaningful interactions between individuals and their work environments, including the cultural, historical, and social conditions (see e.g. Kelchtermans, 2009). Hence, there is a growing need for new approaches to professional development that address the changing demands of the professions.

Narrative pedagogies, understood as “the art of teaching with and through stories” (Oliver-Álvarez et al., 2024, p. 394), have become widespread in professional development across various professions and fields, including teacher education, and continue to evolve in innovative ways. This symposium explores emerging narrative pedagogies and the diverse ways they are understood and applied to support professional development. We build on Bruner’s (1987) concept of narrative knowing - which suggests that people understand themselves and the world around them through stories - to highlight the value of narrative as a pedagogical approach. Narrative pedagogies rest on the view that stories are central to transmitting and reshaping culture; changing the stories can change people’s lives and society (Smith & Sparkes, 2008).

The philosophical underpinnings of narrative pedagogies are rooted in social constructionism (Estola et al., 2014), which posits that knowledge is co-constructed with others through a social meaning-making process. Narrative pedagogies aim to enhance individuals’ knowledge actively, encouraging construction of stories from their own lives and engagement with others’ or imaginary stories, rather than fostering passive, spectator knowledge. Central to this process is relationality, which emphasizes the encounters and interactions between people as fundamental to learning and development. A particularly extensive line of research and fruitfulness of narrative pedagogies has been noted in the professional development of teachers and medical professionals (e.g., nurses). The research literature has introduced various ways of employing narrative pedagogies (e.g., Goodson & Gill, 2011). These pedagogies facilitate telling of an individual's experiences, becoming aware of one’s own tacit knowledge and beliefs, as well as sharing of experiences, challenging them and connecting them with theoretical perspectives (Kelchtermans, 2014). Overall, they provide opportunities for professionals to build their skills and confidence needed to navigate the uncertainties inherent in many fields of work (Strangeway & Papatraianou, 2016).

The four presentations included in this symposium all contribute to the following research question: How can narrative pedagogies enhance professional development and learning? This symposium broadens the current repertoire of the narrative pedagogies by exploring reflective vignettes, the method of empathy-based stories, visual narratives, and the collective biography method. These contributions from European and Asian contexts (Austria, Belgium, Finland, Japan) illustrate how narrative pedagogies can be employed with participants from different fields, such as with pre-service teachers, medical students, teacher educators and academics, and both individually and collectively. The contributions also highlight such aspects of professional development, i.e. emotions, moral, gender and power, that may otherwise be challenging to address. Thus, the symposium aims to broaden our understanding of what the use of narrative pedagogies can mean for the professional development of the participants in question. Ultimately, the symposium stimulates discussion on how narrative pedagogies could be applied and used more boldly in various educational settings, and to consider the kinds of narrative literacy and understanding such practices may require from those involved.

Bruner, J. (1987). Actual minds, possible worlds. Harvard University Press. Dvir, N. (2024). Using narrative pedagogy for novice teachers’ professional development. Professional Development in Education, 50(4), 625-637. Goodson, I. F., & Gill, S. R. (2011). Narrative pedagogy. Life history and learning. Peter Lang. Estola, E., Heikkinen, H., & Syrjälä, L. (2014). Narrative pedagogies for peer groups. In C. J. Craig & L. Orland-Barak (Eds.), International teacher education: Promising pedagogies (Part A, pp. 155–172). Emerald. Kelchtermans, G. (2009). Who I am in how I teach is the message: Self-understanding, vulnerability and reflection. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 15(2), 257–272. Kelchtermans, G. (2014). Narrative-biographical pedagogies in teacher education. In C. J. Craig & L. Orland-Barak (Eds.) International teacher education: Promising pedagogies (Part A, pp. 273–291). Emerald. Oliver-Álvarez, M., Pérez-Samaniego, V., Peiró-Velert, C., & Monforte, J. (2024). Narrative pedagogy in sport, PETE, and physical education: A scoping review. European Physical Education Review, 31(3), 393-414. Smith, B., & Sparkes, A.C. (2008). Narrative and its potential contribution to disability studies. Disability & Society, 23(1), 17–28. Strangeways, A., & Papatraianou, L.H. (2016). Case-based Learning for Classroom Ready Teachers: Addressing the Theory Practice Disjunction through Narrative Pedagogy. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 41(9), 117-134.