Teacher inquiry and learning stories: a site for pedagogical change

ABSTRACT

This article draws on the research findings of a case study at Greerton Early Learning Centre in Aotearoa, New Zealand, utilising data from the teachers’ research inquiries into their professional practice. Teachers’ inquiries included Learning Stories – a research-based sociocultural narrative assessment approach – written for children and families. Teachers, as part of usual practice, to deepen collegial understanding of their local curriculum (the learning and teaching culture), shared Learning Stories. The research findings indicated that the dialogical process involved in sharing Learning Stories strengthened teachers’ pedagogical practice. Constructing case study data using teacher inquiries was useful because it allowed for a zooming-in approach to understanding children’s learning identities by way of the Learning Story narrative assessments [Carr 2001. Assessment in Early Childhood Settings: Learning Stories. Sage] that captured learners’ lived experiences over time, across cultures, and community spaces. A zooming-out focus then enabled wider comments about the effectiveness of strengthening children’s learning identities and stretching teachers’ pedagogical practice through analysing Learning Stories that tracked the continuity and progress of both learning and teaching. All participants provided informed consent, including choosing to forgo anonymity.

KEYWORDS:

• Shared leadership
• narrative assessment
• learning stories
• dispositions
• working theories

Disclosure statement

As noted in the body of the manuscript, the authors disclose their respective positioning as insiders in the Greerton Early Learning Centre community including Lorraine Sands’s prior ownership of the centre.

Notes

1 The Education Review Office is Aotearoa New Zealand’s regulatory body, reviewing schools and early learning settings practices.

2 Mana, mauri, and wairua are complex te ao Māori concepts and no direct translation is possible. Mana refers to an extraordinary power, essence, or presence. It is a concept that applies to both people and the natural world. life principle, life force, vital essence, special nature, a material symbol of a life principle, source of emotions—the essential quality and vitality of a being or entity. Wairua refers to the spiritual or soul of a person.

3 Te Tiriti o Waitangi is Aotearoa New Zealand’s founding treaty between the British Crown and the indigenous people of Aotearoa. This Treaty is embedded in Te Whāriki (MOE 1996, 2017) and teachers are committed to honouring its Tiriti principles.