Despite the increasing interest in arts-based and visual methods as part of narrative research (Leitch, 2006), few studies utilize visual narratives to explore pre-service teachers’ identity construction and its emotional dimension. Furthermore, there is a notable lack of practical guidelines for implementing visual narratives as a pedagogical tool within teacher education. This presentation addresses this gap by demonstrating how to employ visual narratives as a pedagogical tool with pre-service teachers. While narratives tend to be understood as oral or written stories, using language to capture the experiences, visual narratives are stories told through, by or with visuals, i.e., photographs, drawings and collages (Bach, 2007; lisahunter, 2017). Visual narratives evoke emotions, help tell stories that might be overlooked, and encourage embodied knowledge (Kettunen et al., 2024; Eisner, 2008). Visual narratives facilitate self-awareness, allowing pre-service teachers to recognize new perspectives on what it means to be a teacher, including recognition and challenging of cultural teacher stories as well as the emergence of embodied, non-verbal narration (Kettunen, 2026). Building on these theoretical foundations, this presentation details practical strategies to facilitate the integration of visual narratives into teacher education. Specifically, it will provide three methods of generating visual narratives: combining autobiographical writings with photographs, utilizing drawing as a medium for thinking and storytelling, and employing photographs, drawings or images found from the internet as generative starting points for collage. These examples include specific guidelines for individual reflection, peer-led sharing in larger groups where the teacher is not present, as well as techniques for facilitating reflective group discussions within smaller groups of four to seven pre-service teachers. By providing these concrete guidelines, the presentation aims to offer teacher educators a roadmap for fostering deeper self-awareness and teacher identity construction of pre-service teachers.

Bach, H. (2007). Composing a visual narrative inquiry. In D. J. Clandinin (Ed.), Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology (pp. 280–307). Sage. Eisner, E. W. (2008). Art and knowledge. In J. G. Knowles & A. L. Cole (Eds.), Handbook of the arts in qualitative research: Perspectives, methodologies, examples, and issues (pp. 3–13). Sage. Kettunen, A., Uitto, M., & Lutovac, S. (2024). Exploring the use of pre-service teachers’ visual narratives in the arts-based workshop to study emotions. In E. K. Hyry-Beihammer, O. Ylitapio-Mäntylä, & M. Uitto (Eds.), Narratives in educational research: Methodological perspectives (pp. 85–102). Springer. Kettunen, A. (2026). Pre-service teacher identity construction through visual narratives: Studying the emotional dimension. [Doctoral dissertation, University of Oulu]. Acta Universitatis Ouluensis. Leitch, R. (2006). Limitations of language: Developing arts-based creative narrative in stories of teachers’ identities. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 12(5), 549–569. lisahunter. (2017). If you see what I mean? Visual narratives: Stories told through, with, and by images. In R. Dryer, I. Davis, & e. Emerald (Eds.), Narrative research in practice (pp. 89–116). Springer.