Marti Suddarth's Literature Review

I commented on Lecia Crim-Overley's TRANSFORMATIONAL LEARNING review on Sept. 27, 2016.
I commented on Laverne Marri-Perez's NARRATIVE LEARNING review on Sept. 29, 2016.

Narrative Learning

A Literature Review

Marti Suddarth

EDAC634 – Fall 2016

Ball State University

Introduction

Human beings have used narratives throughout our history to both entertain and teach.  Borthwick-Wong and Jones paraphrased Allan when they wrote, “Before human beings learned how to read and write, story-telling was the medium of collective memory,” (Allan, 2002, p.2, as paraphrased by Borthwick-Wong & Jones, 2012, p. 12). 

Narrative, in its simplest definition, is a story.  There is a beginning, an end, and in between there is a sequence of events.  Holley and Colyar offered a similar definition. “Narrative is the telling (or retelling) of a story in a specific time sequence,” (Holley & Colyar, 2009, p. 681). Usually there is a problem and a solution, what Holley and Colyar referred to as “a question or unresolved issue” and “some resolution” (Holley & Colyar, 2009, p. 683). Stories employ “a shared cultural store of motifs, events, stock characters, and expectations,” (Michelson, 2012, p. 200), conveyed through understood “grammars of telling,” (Evans, 2013, p. 19).

Themes

Using narratives is a way that humans remember and make sense of what we learn.   This happens in part because narratives give information temporal order.  Bell (2002), Conle (2003), Hawkey (2007), Holley and Colyar (2009), Michelson (2012), and others point to the significance of narrative’s temporal aspects.  Human beings are limited and bound by time, and “because human reality is temporal, we organize our experience of the world within an essentially narrative framework,” (Hawkey, 2007, p. 264-265).  

We expect a beginning, a middle, and an end, and we understand the concepts of past, present, and future.  Narratives help us place knowledge by connecting it to these concepts, and by marking happenings as “causes” - the past - and “effects” – the present and future.  Bell noted, “…narrative has an inherently temporal thread in that current events are understood as rising out of past happenings and pointing to future outcomes,” (Bell, 2002, p. 207).  We are able to discern causes, anticipate future events, and weigh importance or consequence.  “This then points to another meaning of narrative, namely an overview understanding of the sequence and significance of sweeps of history or key episodes,” (Hawkey, 2007, p. 264).  

Narrative is an effective learning tool because of its social nature.   Bell wrote that “…stories do not exist in a vacuum but are shaped by lifelong personal and community narratives,” (Bell, 2002, p. 208).  Pavlenko wrote “…narratives are not purely individual productions – they are powerfully shaped by social, cultural, and historical conventions as well as by the relationship between the storyteller and the interlocutor (whether an interviewer, a researchers, a friend, or an imaginary reader),” (Pavlenko, 2002, p. 214).  For the narrator and audience to make meaning, they both need to be versed in a common set of knowledge. While composing his story, the narrator puts information and events in an order that makes sense and encourages connection and understanding.  He selects well-known story-telling conventions, such as characters (i.e. a damsel in distress), plot devices (i.e. a wish granted to the main character), and vocabulary, for their ability to convey what he wishes to convey.  This focuses both the narrator and the audience on important details and helps them filter information that is of less consequence. The commonly held conventions give audience members hints to roles, upcoming events, etc.  The audience is now engaged, and by making predictions, they become part of the telling.   

Narrative facilitates dialog. “Writing is a dialogical process because the writer always addresses a (real or imaginary) audience and because text ‘talks back’ to the writer,” (Kellogg, 1994, as paraphrased by Lengella & Meijers, 2014, p. 54).   While the narrator may tell the story for himself, most often he tells the story for an audience, whether the audience is made of people sitting in a room with him or an individual reading pages he wrote in the past.  In the first part of the dialog, the narrator creates his narrative, taking into account what he knows of his audience.  Next, the audience receives and interprets the narrative.  Then the audience, whether made of others or the narrator himself, responds by reacting, joining in, or by sharing – renarrating the story themselves.  As this back and forth continues, the story is told, retold, edited, and reshaped, as is the relationship between the narrator and the audience.

Describing the experiences of a Holocaust survivor who speaks to students of various ages, Conle wrote, “Students bring their own constructions to their understanding of his experiences,” (Conle, 2003, p. 10).  The narrator contemplated the ages, background knowledge, and experiences of his audience each time he told his story.  This helped the narrator and audience make meaning together, but it was also instructive for the narrator.   “Because his audience in part shapes his narrative statements, the act of telling his stories continues to be a learning experience for him,” (Conle, 2003, p. 10).  As the narrator considers his story, he “engages in self-discovery and self-creation,” (Flottemesch, 2013, p. 55).    The narrator must view himself as two people, the “self” who is acting out the story – a past self - and the “self” who is narrating – a current self.   Michelson wrote that “…producing a semblance of retrospective coherence requires that two parallel narratives be told simultaneously: the forward-looking narrative of life incidents and the (sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit) backward-looking narrative of the coming into meaning,” (Michelson, 2012, p. 207).

Narratives serve to teach and reinforce group knowledge, values, and mores, as well as to strengthen group loyalty.  “Stories create bridges connecting generations and create a sense of history that gives younger family members a sense of identity,” “Koenig, et al. (2006) indicate that one function to family stories is to teach expected behavior and deeply held values to current members and to socialize new members…” (Flottemesch, 2013, p. 58).   Flottemesch described a study in which students interviewed adult relatives and then were interviewed by researchers.  Regardless of the relationship of the participants, bonds were strengthened and respect grew.   As students created narratives based on these interviews, they were able to compare their own experiences with those of their elders.  They imagined their elders as children and young adults and appreciated challenges and hardships overcome.

Narrative research often focuses on collecting stories and examining them for common themes.  It recognizes the importance of context, individual motivation, and self-identity, and allows the researcher to see information that is temporally connected.  In other words, where and why are important, as is what the individual believes about himself and his experience, and the effect of chronological continuity is highlighted.

Thompson and Vasquez used a narrative approach to their study of native English speakers who studied other languages because narrative  “allows for the exploration of the relationship between the motivation of the individual learner and those features of the specific language learning environment that each learner believes to be relevant to his/her language acquisition,” (Thompson & Vasquez, 2015, p. 171).     Coffey and Street (2008) conducted a similar narrative analysis of two native English speakers who described their efforts at becoming fluent in second languages.  Thompson and Vasquez noted that, “Using a narrative approach allowed for several key themes to emerge, which would have been impossible to access by using a pre-determined set of questions (as in a questionnaire),” (Thompson & Vasquez, 2015, p. 171).     Both studies examined self-generated identities that were shaped by experiences and narratives that the language learners created for themselves.   They concluded that the language learners were able to learn because of the future narratives that they wrote for themselves.  The learners “cast” themselves as capable learners and speakers and so they became capable learners and fluent speakers. 

In their study of adult ability to learn new words, Batterink and Neville noted that children learn words at a remarkable pace and that “the majority of these words are learned incidentally through context,” (Batterink & Neville, 2011, p. 3181).   Their study showed that the ability to learn words in context extends into adulthood.   Participants were exposed to nonsense words embedded in narratives.  When particular words consistently replaced real words, the adult learners were able to decipher the meanings, and later, when presented with lists of nonsense words, the learners were able to identify the nonsense words from the stories and recall their meanings.  However, when the participants read stories in which the nonsense words randomly replaced real words, their ability to recall the words was much more limited, even though the participants had had the same number of exposures to each word, whether consistently or inconsistently placed.  EEG readings of brainwave activity confirmed that the participants’ brains perceived the consistently embedded nonsense words similarly to the way they perceived real words, even after only a few exposures.   Batterink and Neville determined that “providing meaningful semantic information about new words appears to be an important factor in the integration of novel words into existing conceptual and lexical networks,” (Batterink & Neville, 2011, p. 3182). 

Implications

The research examined for this paper indicates that narrative, whether a method of teaching or of research, has many advantages. It allows narrators to create and develop their own identities and allows the audience to connect, identify, or empathize with the narrator.  It can be used to create and strengthen group identity and loyalty.   Narratives are temporal, and as such, they provide a framework for organization of material that helps the learner remember information and make sense of it.  Because information embedded in narratives is more easily remembered than isolated information, and because narratives help the learner connect that information to what is already known, narratives are especially adept at transmitting vocabulary and moral lessons.

The term “narrative” can be used for oral, written, or even acted story sharing.  A particular narrative may exist in two or three formats.  As such, narrative is a flexible method that can be adapted to the narrator’s abilities and experiences, and to the audience and its situation.

The act of journaling is a form of narrative, one in which the learner is also the narrator.  Learners may write to learn the initial material or to reflect on what has already been learned, but either way “students write more and more for themselves and the act of narrating takes on a teaching function,” (Conle, 2003, p. 8).  Journaling is especially effective for self-discovery and self-identification.

For all of narrative’s advantages, there are limitations. Narrative research is time consuming.  Because it must be conducted one-on-one, and because the act of storytelling can be lengthy, “the time commitment required makes it unsuitable for work with a large number of participants,” (Bell, 2002, p. 210).

Narratives are influenced by the culture, language, and other circumstances in which they were created.   The meaning is created or understood based on common themes, experiences, knowledge, and tropes, as well as by the interaction between the story and a specific narrator or audience member.   Because of this, a story can take on a different meaning when “moved.”  It can be misconstrued when taken out of its original context or when translated from one language to another, as Pavlenko noted when writing “…a story elicited in one language may be shaped by conventions of another and thus may not be heard as such or may be misunderstood,”  (Pavlenko, 2002, p. 214). 

The act of creating a narrative changes the narrative.  Each is highly dependent on its format.  One characteristic of an oral narrative is the vocal inflection of its teller, which, given the imperfect nature of humans, will differ with each retelling.  A written narrative is interpreted, in part, by the reading skill of the reader.  If his vocabulary has little in common with the story’s, the reader will come to a different understanding than the conclusion reached by a reader whose vocabulary is more aligned.  

Each narrative is influenced by the choices of its narrator and scribe.  “Of course, the role of the interpretive frame and the involvement of the researcher (Coffey) in shaping the narrative resulted in a jointly construction (Block, 200; Mishelr, 1986) set of stories,” (Coffey & Street, 2008, p. 455).   The words they choose to use, the details they find important or significant, and the emphasis they give to each make the narrative what it is, and if the narrator isn’t the researcher or scribe, the narrative becomes the product of two narrators.   “As with all interpretative research, findings are contingent on choices made by researchers in their presentation,” (Coffey & Street, 2008, p. 455).

Reflection

As a freelance writer, I was interested in Narrative Learning, and its connection to historical research in particular, since narrative is a medium I often utilize.  I learned that narrative is an effective form of teaching, learning, and research because it often is what “fleshes out” the raw data of measurements, dates, and other numbers.   Conle’s (2003) description of a Holocaust survivor’s narrative experiences is a perfect example.  The students he addressed may have known dates, locations, and statistics, but they only realized the real, in-depth horrors when they heard the narrative from an eye-witness.   

When learners write, they use higher-order thinking skills to weigh word and phrase options, consider meter, and hone their message in light of both their own and their intended audience’s interactions with the material.  When learners read or listen to narratives, they use context clues to detect meanings of new words and familiar words with multiple meanings, as well as performance nuances that indicate degree.

Of special interest to me was Flottemesch’s description of a study that combined intergenerational storytelling with digital media.  My hobby is genealogy.  My master’s degree is in curriculum and educational technology, and my favorite of those courses were “Children and Digital Literacy,” “Distance Education,” and “The History of American Education.”  Intergenerational storytelling combined with digital media would put together the most interesting aspects of these three classes.   My interest is piqued, and I would like to learn more.

Table

	Main Themes from the Literature	Application of the Main Ideas in Practice
Idea 1	Narrative is temporal in nature.	Some information is not affected by time.  2+2=4, regardless of when the problem is solved.  However, some information is heavily influenced by time.  The temporal nature of narrative must be considered.  However, this temporal nature is one of the aspects that helps learners remember and make sense of the material.  Teachers can help students with this by helping them “track” the temporal characteristics of a narrative, perhaps through charts, timelines, etc.
Idea 2	The meanings of narratives are heavily influenced by the background knowledge and experiences of the narrator, the audience, and also by the context.	Teachers must help learners to examine the narrator’s background knowledge, experiences, etc. to help them fully understand the meanings behind what is learned.  Likewise, teachers help narrators to consider the backgrounds, base knowledge, and preconceived ideas of their intended audiences so that knowledge can be effectively shared.
Idea 3	Narrative is dialogic.	A narrative is a conversation between the narrator and the audience, whether that conversation is actually an oral back-and-forth or simply in meaning making.  Educators can help students influence narratives by asking them to write or dictate reflections, contact narrators, or write their own variations or endings to narrations.
Idea 4	Writing is a form of narrative.  When writing, learners become the narrators.	Teachers can help students become narrators through writing.  Whether students are describing the steps they took to accomplish a task or reflecting on an experience or feeling, writing employs higher-order cognitive skills as learners select words and phrases, and organize the material to make sense.  Lessons in writing skills will help learners use narrative.

References

Batterink L., & Neville, H. (2011).  Implicit and explicit mechanisms of word learning in a narrative context: An event-related potential study.  Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23(11). 3181-3196.

Bell, J.S. (2002). Narrative inquiry: More than just telling stories.  TESOL Quarterly, 36(2).  Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3588331.

Borthwick-Wong, E., & Jones, J. (2012).  The learning community narrative: An essential first step in creating and sustaining program identity.  About Campus. 9-14.  DOI: 10.1002/abc.21074.

Coffey, S. & Street, B. (2008).  Narrative and identity in the "Language Learning Project.”  The Modern Language Journal, 92 (3) 452-464.  Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25173070

Conle, C. (2003).  An anatomy of narrative curricula.  Educational Researcher, 32(3).  Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3699829

Evans, R. (2013).  Learning and knowing: Narratives, memory and biographical knowledge in interview interaction.   European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 4(1) pp. 17-31.

Flottemesch, K. (2013).  Learning through narratives: The impact of digital storytelling on intergenerational relationships.  Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, (17) 53-60.

Hawkey, K. (2007).  Could you just tell us the story?  Curriculum Inquiry, 3(3).  Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/30053221

Holley, K.A., & Colyar, J. (2009).  Rethinking texts: Narrative and the Construction of Qualitative Research. Educational Researcher, 38(9). 608-686.  Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25592191.

Lengella, R., & Meijers, F. (2014)  Narrative identity: writing the self in career learning. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 42(1), 52-72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2013.816837

Michelson, E. (2012).  If the self is a text, what genre is it? Structure and ideology in narratives of adult learning.  Adult Education Quarterly, 63(3), 199–214.  doi: 10.1177/0741713612442785.

Pavlenko, A. (2002).  Narrative study: Whose story is it, anyway?  TESOL Quarterly, 36(2).  Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3588332

Thompson, A.S., & Vasquez, C. (2015).  Exploring motivational profiles through language learning narratives.  The Modern Language Journal, 99(1).  158-174. doi: 10.1111/mod1.12187