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This article was downloaded by: [University of California Santa Cruz] On: 15 November 2014, At: 14:24 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Educational Action Research Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/reac20 Just a little story: the use of stories to aid reflection on teaching in higher education Helen Burchell a & Janet Dyson a a University of Hertfordshire , Watford, United Kingdom Published online: 19 Dec 2006. To cite this article: Helen Burchell & Janet Dyson (2000) Just a little story: the use of stories to aid reflection on teaching in higher education, Educational Action Research, 8:3, 435-450, DOI: 10.1080/09650790000200127 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09650790000200127 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http:// www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

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Page 1: Just a little story: the use of stories to aid reflection on teaching in higher education

This article was downloaded by: [University of California Santa Cruz]On: 15 November 2014, At: 14:24Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: MortimerHouse, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Educational Action ResearchPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/reac20

Just a little story: the use of stories to aid reflectionon teaching in higher educationHelen Burchell a & Janet Dyson aa University of Hertfordshire , Watford, United KingdomPublished online: 19 Dec 2006.

To cite this article: Helen Burchell & Janet Dyson (2000) Just a little story: the use of stories to aid reflection on teachingin higher education, Educational Action Research, 8:3, 435-450, DOI: 10.1080/09650790000200127

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09650790000200127

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) containedin the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make norepresentations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose ofthe Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be reliedupon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shallnot be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and otherliabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to orarising out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematicreproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in anyform to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

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Educational Action Research, Volume 8, Number 3, 2000

435

Just a Little Story: the use of stories to aid reflection on teaching in higher education

HELEN BURCHELL & JANET DYSON University of Hertfordshire, Watford, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT In the context of teaching in higher education story writing as an

aid to reflection on practice would seem to be a little-used research tool. We

examine its value as part of an action research project focusing on dissertation

supervision, in which five lecturers were invited to write stories on this theme.

The ways in which this dimension was introduced into the project are explored,

and its distinctive contribution to the research, together with the use of

interviews and group discussion, is discussed. We consider the purposes of

story writing within action research, and the ways in which it might benefit

both writer and readers, and offer suggestions for how others might develop

this aspect of action research into teaching in higher education.

What’s the use of stories that aren’t even true? (Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories)

Introduction

Can story writing support reflection on the practice of teaching in higher education? This paper seeks to portray the use of story writing in the context of an action research project, which drew on a range of tools to explore professional practice. The project focused on dissertation supervision in the context of a Continuing Professional Development Programme for teachers and lecturers.

The supervision undertaken by the lecturers involved in this action research project was at Masters or first degree level. For the five lecturers who formed the action research group in this study, supervision was an important aspect of their teaching. The action research which they undertook lasted approximately one academic year, and needed to be organised in ways that would fit with significant teaching and other duties.

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Our main interest was in enabling dissertation supervisors to reflect on aspects of their professional practice and to identify areas they wished to address.

Designing an approach to action research that would fit with these heavy work demands was important. Time was at a premium and the value of different research tools needed to be explored carefully. One tool that was a somewhat unusual addition to the more commonly used interview and personal diary or log was the writing of a story. This paper examines the use of story writing within the context of the action research. It suggests ways in which others who wish to explore an action research approach to the development of teaching and learning might incorporate story within the range of tools used to explore professional practice.

We begin with a description of the action research project itself. Some of the work on the use of story in a range of contexts is then used to provide a rationale for how stories may contribute something distinctive to the action research process. We will describe how stories were used within this project, using examples of stories written by the supervisors and extracts from interviews and discussions that took place around those stories, and the use of stories in general. It is not our intention in this article to present evidence concerning the impact of the action research or the story element, on the supervisors’ practice. We have argued elsewhere (Burchell, 2000) that such action research can have a key role in developing teaching/supervising practice through the ongoing reflection that is an integral part of the process.

The Action Research Project

Action research in higher education is a relatively new field (e.g. Zuber-Skerritt, 1992a,b), although in the field of education generally there is a significant history of its use (Somekh, 1995). The value of action research, either individual or group, in supporting reflection on practice and its development has been so extensively argued that it probably does not require further exploration here. Its potential for bringing together the two central aspects of the role of most lecturers in higher education, namely teaching and research, gives it a particular significance in this context.

This action research project involved five lecturers (including one of the authors of this article), five teachers they were working with and a research assistant. The lecturers and research assistant (all female) constituted the action research group, which met at intervals over the period of one academic year to discuss the progress of the project and the supervision issues that arose. The supervision experience of the lecturers ranged from relatively little to considerable. One supervisor was supervising within the programme for the first time, having one teacher to supervise (although she previously had experience of supervision in initial teacher education); a second supervisor was in the third year of supervision; and D

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the other three supervisors had substantial supervision experience, averaging some 7 years with a typical supervision load of five teachers per year. The major data-gathering strategies used were interviews of the lecturers and course members by the research assistant, in each case on four occasions. Following each course member interview the research assistant gave feedback to the supervisor from the course member responses, with the latter’s agreement. In addition, some supervisors kept a diary recording their supervision experiences and, as we describe below, all supervisors wrote a story about their supervision practice.

Why Use Stories in Action Research?

We recognise that much has been written about the use of stories in various contexts, and it seems important to see our own work against the backdrop of this rich, diverse and well-developed theoretical framework.

Some writers portray story-telling as being an integral part of everyday life and experience. Meek (1991) describes stories as a means for ‘sorting out the world’ (p. 100). ‘We rely on stories to sort out the world ... story telling is a universal habit, a part of our common humanity ... we discover in stories ways of saying and telling that let us know who we are’ (p. 103). The sense in which story is a powerful tool for understanding and coming to terms with what it means to be human, in both a personal and a universal way, underpins much that has been written about the power of story. Lynch (1991) sees story as something which ‘grows out of life, reflects it and enters into dialogue with it. All life is in story so that, there, we find our experience confirmed, challenged and broadened’ (p. 5). Meek (1991) emphasises the need for an understanding that narrative has a special place in the growth of literacy, not only for children:

If we are to understand this, we must begin by giving up the idea that we, as adults, tell stories to children and the truth to ourselves. Story-telling as a habit is both universal and lifelong. (p. 105)

Hardy (1975) also values story telling as a universal attribute. She gives us a sense of the richness of this universality when she says:

Nature, not art, makes us all story tellers. Daily and nightly we devise fictions and chronicles, calling some of them daydreams or dreams, some of them nightmares, some of them truths, records, reports, and plans. Some of them we call, or refuse to call, lies. Narrative imagination is a common human possession ... (p. vii)

Apart from a recognition of the general place of stories in our lives there is an increasing interest in the use of story to explore experiences of work. Within this arena there are those who look specifically at stories written by teachers, e.g. Grumet (1990) who uses autobiographical narratives of educational experience, and others such as Bolton (1994) who have D

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explored their use with a range of professional groups. A somewhat different perspective is given by Czarniawska (1998) who comments on the use of narrative methods by researchers studying organisations to highlight ‘the interface between persons, stories and organisations, and to place the person in emotional and organisational context’ (p. v, Introduction).

There is also a number of action research studies which have used story in a variety of forms to highlight areas of practice for further development. A starting point for understanding the value of story in action research is to recognise the significance of the writing process itself. Holly (1989) sees writing narrative about everyday and unusual events in a reflective journal as a tool for self-exploration: ‘Writing works when it enables us to come to know ourselves through the multiple voices our experiences take, to describe our contexts and histories as they shape the many minds and selves who define us and others’ (p. 78). Winter (1989) sharpens our perception of this process when he says that ‘a piece of writing is always an act of self-exploration: what it ‘means’ is not known beforehand and ‘put into’ the text, rather it is discovered by being written’ (p. 237). It is through this very process of self-exploration that the stories made such a distinctive contribution within this action research project.

We have drawn on another key concept in Winter’s writing, namely that of the ‘dilemma’ (Winter, 1982). He uses this term to describe the contradictions inherent in the working lives of individuals, within ourselves and within the organisations in which we work. Later (Winter, 1989), he shows how these dilemmas can be revealed and explored through fictional-critical writing, a methodology he develops for use within action research. In similar vein, Evans (1998a) used story as a means for deepening her understanding of the CPD process in her school, framed within an action research cycle. She indicates that ‘the story enabled me to engage in reflexivity and dialectic analysis, helping me to know my practice but also raising questions to which I may not find answers’ (p. 54). In another article, she describes the use of story by a group of her colleagues to support their continuing professional development (Evans, 1998b). As an individual teacher engaged in story writing Convery (1993) also sees story as a ‘therapeutic stimulus to reflection’ (p. 150), a dimension which was not explicitly part of our study, and indeed might present something of a barrier to engagement in the context of professional group discussions. He also describes how stories may offer ‘a protective disguise for the discussion of problematic professional issues’ (p. 140), indicating that they can help practitioners to reconstruct their teaching situations and to recognise what they can change and what they can’t.

Elliott (1994), as an advocate of action research as an effective means of bringing about change in practice, questions whether narrative enquiry is ‘genuinely transformative of practice, or merely a process in which teachers tell their stories to researchers and have them affirmed’ (p. 134). This raises an important issue that will be touched on later in the role of stories in this D

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action research project and James (1996) provides an interesting distinction between different types of story, which may be helpful in this discussion. She suggests that some stories may be obstacles to transformation of practice because they describe current practice in an uncritical way, whereas other stories may be transformative because they present evidence of questioning of practice, or describe actual changes in practice. Convery (1999) also explores the link between the story and transformation of practice through his account of how teachers may present ‘self-assuring autobiographies’ without significant potential for alternative interpretation or self-criticism. He also suggests that the form of such teachers’ stories may in part be a function of their being told within a research context, and that the relationship between the researcher and the teacher may make it difficult for anything other than affirmation to take place. In exploring these themes in the context of this action research project, we would argue that there is a sense in which the activity of reflecting on practice is itself transformational in that it is a constructive process which helps to develop our understanding of our professional ‘world’, enabling us to operate more effectively, that is with a greater depth of understanding, within it.

Our aim in using stories in this research was not for them to be affirmed by either the research assistant or fellow supervisors. The stories are a way into exploring some aspects of academic supervision and, through individual and group reflection, to identify and address some of the emerging issues and dilemmas.

What Part Did Story Writing Play in Our Action Research?

As part of the action research project we asked each of the supervisors to write a story about aspects of their professional lives, in particular the experience of supervising dissertation students. We made the request about half-way through the year-long project. In order not to constrain them to a particular style or format we did not provide any models: hence, there was no indication whether they should consider a story with a strong autobiographical theme, a story of a specific supervision experience or a fictional account. We gave a brief explanation of how story can be used to support the process of action research, using two short quotations from Evans (1998a) and Bolton (1994) to illustrate this approach; we stressed that there was no ‘right’ way of doing it and that literary merit was not looked for! Our aim was to present the request in a non-threatening manner. We emphasised that what was looked for was ‘just a little story’.

Even so, the responses were tentative. The stories trickled in, often with comments along the lines of ‘I’m not sure if I’ve done this right’. Being asked to write in an unusual format (and one that is as potentially diverse as ‘story’) may be unnerving for those who have never written in this form before. It may be particularly so in an academic context where there are strong conventions around the forms of writing that are appropriate for the public domain. In similar vein, Winter et al (1999) describe the response of

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members of a reflective writing course as having ‘associated “writing” with, on the one hand, producing a professional case report, or on the other, an academic essay ... the notion of a “story” offered a somewhat worrying form of liberation from these familiar formats’ (p. 5).

The best we could do was to urge supervisors to ‘try it and see’, and to do it ourselves! Most of the published examples of story writing in an educational research setting come from groups who have chosen to work together using this form of expression or who are involved in a reflective writing course (Winter, 1989; Bolton, 1994; Winter et al, 1999), and in these cases story writing is an accepted approach. We were introducing it to people who were not familiar with the mode in an academic context, had never tried it and who were being invited to do it as a means of reflecting on their practice in an everyday context. In fact, despite some uncertainty and perhaps reservation, everyone in the group did write a story! We have no evidence that any of the supervisors would otherwise have chosen to use story writing as a form for sharing their experiences of supervision. However, they were all willing to participate in this aspect of the action research and at least one supervisor has continued to explore her professional practice through story writing as a result of having tried it in the context of this study.

The introduction of story writing in this research was an experiment. The aim was to see whether writing a story could be an effective way into exploring dissertation supervision and, through individual and group reflection, to identify and begin to address some of the emerging issues and dilemmas. Within the context of this action research project, it was important to emphasise the sense that any one can do it. It is a readily accessible approach because story is common currency – everybody can and does tell stories. We tell jokes and anecdotes. We tell the story of our day when we get home, highlighting and exaggerating the exciting bits, and skipping over the boring parts. There is no mystery to story telling. It’s an integral part of everyday life. It is this accessibility and lack of mystique, which makes it an appropriate methodology to use, alongside other approaches, in a professional development setting.

The stories were shared by circulating them within the group. There was no discussion formally within that setting, although people referred frequently in group meetings to their own or others’ stories. They also provided a stimulus for much informal discussion – on the stairs, in corridors and in the queue for the coffee-machine. Another perspective was brought to the stories through the research assistant’s analysis and the stories, together with the analysis, were taken back to the writers for their further responses. These discussions with the research assistant which were taped and transcribed, provided the opportunity for discussion of some of the themes that she had identified in her analysis, and for the writers to respond to her comments and engage in their own analysis of their stories.

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What Did Stories Contribute to Our Action Research?

Since the concept of writing stories about aspects of our professional practice was new to most members of the group, perhaps it was this sense of novelty, of the unusual, that provided an incentive to try it out. The opportunity to express ideas and feelings through stories was one that presented greater freedom than that offered within an interview situation. The freedom of choice about content, style, length means that the writer can go beyond the scope that the interview provides. The very nature of the activity of story writing suggests that it has the potential to contribute something new to the action research process.

The writers chose a variety of forms in which to write. These included a humorous diary, a vignette, a ‘talking heads’ approach (Bennett, 1982) and a brief autobiographical account. A strong feature of some of these particular stories was the way humour and irony were integral. This is in contrast to most experiences of writing in academic life. Most stories were short, and did not provide the strongly identity-laden autobiographies commented on by writers such as Convery (1999). All presented in fictionalised form a distillation of some understanding, some learning, some questioning about the role of the dissertation supervisor in ways that are far more readily accessible to both writer and readers than, say, an interview transcript. There is an immediacy and accessibility about a story that no other form of writing or telling can match. The stories dealt with current and very real concerns in dissertation supervision, which gives them the potential to speak powerfully to the experience of others in similar situations. As a research tool for supporting reflection on practice they provided some important evidence.

All the stories were, to different degrees, examples of self-exploration. As one supervisor, relatively new to the supervision role, said in interview:

As I progressed through the writing I felt a sense of discovery, not about myself necessarily, but more about the one to one relationships that exist within the supervision framework ... The writing contains fictional episodes which could be interpreted as having some meaning, but there are threads of real situations which have since taken my ideas and theories into new ‘avenues’ for exploration. (Interview extract)

In exploring these ‘new avenues’ the story writer is entering the arena of possible alternative perspectives on the role.

For another supervisor, new to the role, the process of writing the story was a valuable one in the sense that it highlighted problematic aspects of her experience of supervision which, although she was aware of them, were more starkly pointed up by the story:

Interviewer: You took a step aside in your story didn’t you? Did you find that helpful in any way?

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Supervisor: Yes, it was quite unnerving because the way I did it was watching myself wasn’t it? I was quite alarmed at how lacking in confidence I am because although I knew I was ... in general I’m not like that. If you watched me teaching you would say I was the opposite.

Interviewer: Yes, it was that aspect that came out in the story.

Supervisor: I suppose I’m alarmed at how much it’s still there because I don’t want it to be there, because it’s a lot of energy wasted I think. (Interview extract)

There is a clear picture of the reflective process – ‘watching myself’ – in this extract. The sense of ‘alarm’ indicates perhaps the supervisor’s recognition of how she is affected by her current perspective on her role, and the ‘energy wasted’ the recognition of an area for development.

All the stories presented dilemmas, contradictions and ambiguities relating to supervision. To illustrate this and to show something of the diversity of approaches taken by the writers, we include extracts from two of the stories. It is not our intention at this point to comment in detail on the stories. Rather, we would like to invite the reader to engage with them through these brief extracts in order to gain a feeling for how this part of the action research project worked. The first example is in the form of a humorous diary written by a supervisor contemplating her first experience of supervision:

Thursday: The first student rings, be calm now, sound as though you have been doing this job for ages. Slip something into the conversation that will incite some kind of feeling of credibility in the mind of the poor creature. Well, that wasn’t too bad, a date has been set. Quick, rush to the handbook – memorise. Next rush to B, any little crumb of comfort or advice is now most welcome! Then find your Robson – and what was it that Joan Dean said about action research? Where is my dissertation – what did I learn about it all? I don’t know – help!

Fetch bottle of wine. Clean teeth, seek calm in bed. Keep husband awake shouting something about design and methodology. His comment on all this? – unrepeatable.

Friday: Joan arrives. She looks tired, dishevelled, and comes apologising into the room that she has not done what it was that she ought to have done. She knows that because it was spelled out in the dissertation preparation, but she has had such an awful time this week and what must I think of her ... Just a minute, I can relate to this. ... Yes, I do know what she is talking about. I have just the very article that she will find stimulating ... D

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The second extract is an account of an experienced supervisor’s frustration within a tutorial:

This section here, Vyv, you use a term I haven’t met before, conversion hysteria (this was unusual for mostly students used technical language with which Evelyn was very familiar) ...

‘Oh that’, said Vyv, ‘Yes, yes ...’

‘Well, you don’t explain the term, you always need to give the reader a clear definition of key terms ...’

Vyv immediately stepped in with an explanation and Evelyn was somewhat perplexed – ‘Was it a relevant concept or not?’ She sat musing on this for a moment ...

... ‘conversion hysteria’ she said slowly. ‘Can you let me have a copy of the article which describes this term, do you have it?’ (If the truth was told, she was slightly concerned that he might have made the term up, that he was having her on ...)

Vyv nodded. Evelyn looked at her watch and noticed that the tutorial hour was nearly up, and what had she achieved?

‘Well, and how do you feel about the research design now? Tighter and more focused?’ Once again, as in many tutorials with Vyv she felt this need to focus on the methodology, to wrest from him some confirmation that he saw things the way she did, would go away and redraft according to her guidance. ‘Do you think the study is coming along now that we’re sorting this out, tidying up the research design chapter?’

‘Not really’, Vyv said. ‘You see, I think that the message I have, the story I have to tell is clear without all this reworking and redrafting of the methodology ...’

Clearly, the writers are exploring issues in their own supervision practice through their stories. In both cases, the form is distinctively personal and the content reveals an engagement with significant supervision issues. We would suggest that they both reveal a questioning approach to the role, in one case from the perspective of a new supervisor coming to understand her initial interpretation of it, and in the other from the standpoint of a very experienced supervisor reviewing her orientation. In the latter case, the self-questioning is perhaps more implicit, revealed through the irony of the story content itself.

An important question for us, however, was: Did the stories highlight issues in a different way than emerged through the interviews and group discussions? Yes, because although in interview supervisors identified current issues in supervision, the medium of story provided an opportunity

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for them to explore what these issues meant for them personally and to raise questions almost unconsciously. This exemplifies the point made by Winter (1989) concerning the way in which the ambiguities in the author’s personal awareness may be represented through fiction. So, for example, one story dealt with the issues of how prescriptive supervisors should be, the expectations supervisors have of their students, and the sense of frustration that can be experienced. This was all within the context of an anonymised fictional account, which implicitly raised questions for the readers, such as, What would you do in this situation? Did I do it right? Who do you sympathise/empathise with, the student or the supervisor? For the writer what is revealed is that questions are raised to which, as Evans (1998a) suggests, there may not be obvious answers. Asking questions is a vital function of story writing, which also ensures a dialogue with the reader. In Belsey’s terms this is an interrogative text (which) ‘invites the reader to produce answers to questions it implicitly or explicitly raises’ (Belsey, 1980, p. 91).

What is the Value of Stories for Writer and Reader?

Hardy’s words ‘we narrate to each other and to ourselves’ (Hardy, 1975, p. vii) signal the value of the stories for both writers and readers. In commenting on the value of using stories to the writers, it has been argued that since stories are one step removed from a personal account they give opportunities to explore issues that it might be difficult to articulate in any other way. Walker (1981), for example, has used stories as a means of presenting findings and explores their use as a means of ‘disguise’. Rowland et al (1990) make the point that ‘since the events portrayed may not actually have taken place, criticism from others may be relatively unthreatening’ (p. 292). The stories written by the members of the action research group were, in some cases, thinly disguised straight accounts of events as they had been experienced by the writer. However, as Bolton points out, ‘if it is viewed as fiction, confidentiality and confidence are maintained, even if it is a fiction that the piece is a fiction’ (p. 63). What is important here also, is the view expressed by Evans (1998b) that ‘story is not about telling tales of other people’ (p. 495).

In interview the supervisors talked about the value of writing stories in action research as a means of helping them to reflect on their practice. For one supervisor the value lay in the process of choosing the words for a story, indicating the importance of articulating one’s own perspective on the role:

Supervisor: I suppose it just helped to clarify what you thought really. By actually formulating it into the language.

Interviewer: Is that the language of story?

Supervisor: Yes. It helped you to work out what you were thinking. It’s actually choosing the words to write. (Interview extract) D

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A second supervisor saw the use of story as providing ‘another means of expression’. ‘Words are the common currency but you’re using them in a particular way.’ She also described the process of writing her story as ‘watching myself’.

In addition to providing the opportunity for you to step aside and watch yourself, the following comment from another supervisor indicates further ways in which story can enable writers to reflect on their own practice:

I think it legitimates you telling it as it is because through the fiction you can tell what you might not tell through the fact. And if that fiction is linked in to a way of feeling about the role, that is essential to you, that you haven’t had a way of expressing through other kinds of accounts somehow, then I think that the fact that the fictional account is asked of you, or if there’s a space for writing it, is very powerful.

And, for me it’s also been a way of keeping in touch with certain issues because I can return to the story and re-read that, and enjoy re-reading it more than I would my diary, for example, which I do go back to. But this is more, it makes me laugh and so I engage with it more, somehow, than a diary. (Interview extract)

It is worth acknowledging that story writing can be a pleasurable experience. Most members of the group had a sense of pride in their stories and were keen that they should be read by colleagues. The sense of engagement – ‘keeping in touch’ – is also important. For the reflective process to begin to sustain the potential of development of practice, it needs to be kept alive in the mind of the supervisor. Moreover, the idea of ‘telling it as it is’ suggests an account that is not ‘performative’ in Convery’s (1999) sense, i.e. used to present an attractive teaching identity.

On the other hand, one supervisor came more tentatively to an understanding of the value of the story writing process in this action research context. It was important to her that it had academic respectability and credibility.

I had not intended to utilise fiction, and had not realised that it was a vehicle through which to express research outcomes. Indeed had it been presented differently as an idea for exploration, I may have thought that it did not have a place at all within a serious research framework ... (Interview extract)

In fact, it appeared that she wrote her first story with ease, and very quickly followed it up with a second exploring issues in her practice progressively. As she herself says:

Why then did I so freely and rapidly respond to this narrative style as a framework for my responses to the process?

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Her further comment on this indicates the importance in her case of prior experience as a story teller with a background in primary education.

She concludes that the story writing has strongly supported her reflection on her teaching:

It really has supported me. From the point of view of teaching, I was always trying to get to grips with the tools and skills in the supervision process. And through the writing of stories I came to identify exactly what it was (about).

As a process of reflection ... I think I could have reflected by just talking – in the group for example – but by taking it step by step and putting it into fiction a number of things came to the fore that might not have in ordinary conversation. (Interview extract)

We think we have established something of the perceived benefits of story writing to the writers: reflection on practice, enhanced understanding, continued engagement with analysis and interpretation. All these benefits provide a basis for development of alternative perspectives on practice, and the intention to seek to transform it. We would argue, therefore, that the process involves more than the affirmation of personal stories (Elliott, 1994), the presentation of attractive role identities (Convery, 1999) or the unquestioning descriptions of current practice, which may provide obstacles to its development (James, 1996).

However, in order to benefit fully from the story writing process, it has been argued that the writer needs external comment from a reader who can contribute a different perspective on the issues. Evans (1998a,b) records the interest she had in sharing her stories with colleagues for this purpose and Czarniawska (1998) emphasises the accessibility of the narrative approach – ‘the device is everybody’s to use, reconstruct and deconstruct at will’ (p. 17). One of the supervisors in our study echoes Evans’ viewpoint when she says:

It’s not just writing it down, it’s having somebody like you (the research assistant) to draw out those things, especially if you find that there are things that are common to a group of people who have written stories that could then provide something that we reflected on and discussed. (Interview extract)

It is through this process that an alternative perspective on the role may be elicited, contributing to the potential for transforming practice.

Grumet adds a different reason for engaging in analysis of stories, namely because it gives status to this type of data, making it part of ‘the discourse that justifies real action’ (Grumet, 1990, p. 324). She also emphasises the need for analysis because ‘a failure to engage in some analysis of the autobiographical texts beyond celebration and recapitulation leads to a patronising sentimentality. It consigns them to myth, resonant, but marginal because it is not part of the discourse which leads to real action’ (p. 324). In this regard, she comes close to the view expressed by D

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Elliott (1994) and Convery (1999) concerning the danger that in a research context such story writing may lead to nothing more than affirmation of the story presented. We would argue that this is likely to occur only when the relationship between researcher and story writer takes a form that allows this to happen. In the case of this action research project, neither the research assistant nor the other supervisors sought to engage with the stories in this way: the research assistant’s analysis was intended to provide a reader’s insight into the key issues revealed in the story text, as a mirror to the supervisor.

However, the view of one supervisor was that, ultimately, the only person who can know and work with the story is the person who wrote it. ‘Because they are not you, they can’t appreciate it because it can’t have the inner meaning for them that it has for you, or only if they have the ability to read the inner kernel’ (Interview extract). This would seem to question Grumet’s view, or perhaps question what is meant by ‘analysis’ or ‘interpretation’. It is arguable that stories, without any formal process of external analysis, can still bring things to the surface for the writer, make them clearer, provide a basis for reflection and shift in practice. However, we are not seeking to argue that one ‘little story’ on its own can present evidence of transformation of practice.

On the other hand, Winter (1989) argues that ‘authors can learn more about their own stories from hearing readers’ responses’ (p. 165). This was strongly acknowledged by one supervisor as being the only value:

Any value was in having somebody else talking it through ... It would have been no good to me if no-one else had seen it. (Interview extract)

In contrast, one of the responses in our study indicates that not all of a reader’s interpretation may be accepted by the writer. Such an interpretation may still, however, provide prompts for the writer’s own analysis of her story.

In addition to the value of the story to the writer, there is much to be gained by the reader of a story. From the reader’s perspective an important issue may be the ‘truth’ of a story. One of the supervisors in our project, on reading the stories, posed the question: ‘Are they true?’ This echoes the question asked by the child in Rushdie’s story quoted in the title of this paper (Rushdie, 1991). What did she mean? Did she mean that she found it hard to believe that they were ‘true’ or that their value was dependent in some way on their veracity? The answer of course is likely to be: ‘Well, it depends what you mean by “true”!’ The question may be based on a view of fiction and writing that something can only be useful it if is literally true and that writers should (and can) present a ‘real’ view of the world.

In fact, stories convey a view of the world – the writer’s view – and in that sense they are ‘true’. They are ways of seeing and ways of saying what you see. If the readers have a sense of the story speaking to their own condition, resonating with something in their own experience, confirming

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their view of the world or raising questions about their assumptions then story is an effective means of prompting reflection on experience.

All stories are open to interpretation. Readers may participate vicariously in what is being described. Different readers may respond in different ways. As Evans suggests: ‘whoever reads it, in order to make sense of the contradictions and gaps in continuity has to confront their thoughts about their own practices and experiences’ (1998a, p. 54). One relatively new supervisor commenting on the value of reading the stories written by the other members of the group found that they shed light on their ongoing capacity to reflect on their practice: ‘I was struck by how much of themselves people put into each supervision. People who I considered to be very experienced are still very analytical, and I found that quite shocked me.’

Conclusions

The use of ‘little stories’ as presented in this article took place in a specific context, namely that of a significant action research project concerning dissertation supervision. In exploring what value there might be in using stories as an aid to reflection in the context of a project of this kind, we conclude that:

the nature of story is such that it can provide additional insights over and above interview data for writers, discussants and readers;

story writing need not be either a daunting or a time-consuming activity; it can be an enjoyable experience which is personally and professionally

rewarding; story writing of this kind does not require special skills and is more likely

to be received positively if it is presented in a non-threatening way.

For others planning to use stories in this type of project we would suggest the following strategies:

consider how to present the request in a non-threatening way; raise issues around ‘not telling tales’, mutual trust, respect for each

contribution; value each story as a highly personal perspective on the topic; be prepared to explore the natures of ‘story’ and ‘fiction’ and ‘truth’; provide space for analysis by others than the writer – for some people this

may be particularly significant; provide access to the theoretical framework on the use of story as a

methodology in action research.

Our intention in writing this paper has been to convey a sense of how story writing worked for a group of professional colleagues in an action research context. Although what was asked for was ‘just a little story’, we have been surprised and encouraged at the ways in which ‘little stories’ can be a powerful stimulus for reflection on practice. D

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Correspondence

Helen Burchell & Janet Dyson, Department of Education, Faculty of Humanities, Languages and Education, University of Hertfordshire, Watford Campus, Aldenham, Watford WD2 8AT, United Kingdom ([email protected]; [email protected]).

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