Beyond the Telling: Enduring Lives and Consequences of an Autobiographical Narrative

• In Event: Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Education Is Relational Work

Abstract

This study explores the “afterlife” of a narrative incorporated into a preservice literacy course in 2010. It considers the consequences for participants in having the narrative become public. Data sources include the instructor’s journals, critical friend’s written and verbal responses, and students’ written responses, audio recorded discussion group, and video recorded individual interviews. Investigators utilized tools of narrative analysis to interrogate data in an iterative process identifying variations in how the narrative was remembered, interpreted and co-opted by participants. The authors found the narrative and associated class discussion endured in participants’ memories and was employed as a lens for thinking about children/students they had or might meet in their careers.

Authors

• Valerie A. Allison, Susquehanna University

• Michael Patrick Hayes, Susquehanna University