Conceptualizing narrative authority: Implications for teacher education

Abstract

In this paper I explore an alternative to the dominant authority of positivism in teacher education research and curricula through the conceptualization of narrative authority. Narrative authority is rooted in the personal practical knowledge of teacher education students, university teachers and classroom teachers as they interact within the contexts of teacher education. I begin by describing Dewey's conception of experience as individually continuous and socially interactive. I then discuss two ways in which knowledge is constructed from experience and describe how each Ivalues a different kind of authority. 1 then focus on the educative qualities of experience and show how narrative knowledge expressed through mundane and sacred stories can become taken-for-granted or be reconstructed through experience. Next, I describe how we can think of ourselves as authoring our lives through our narrative authority. I then consider the institutional narratives of teacher education in which sacred stories of apprenticeship, technical rationalism, and inquiry are embedded. I conclude by discussing some of the implications acknowledging narrative authority has for reshaping teacher education.