Two of the readings we have discussed in the TLC community this year are: Beyond business as usual: Higher education in the era of climate change (Facer, 2020) and Envisioning Black space in environmental education for young children (Nxumalo & ross, 2019). In this post I seek to make a connection between some of the ideas presented in these readings and possibilities offered by narrative inquiry.
Facer (2020) proposes that we might reshape existing knowledge structures of universities by collaborating across disciplines and drawing on knowledge traditions which can be excluded, with the result that we might then be better placed to consider the ‘complexity of sustainability challenges’ (p.56). Facer also suggests bringing students and teachers together as key in developing programmes ‘adequate to the emotional, intellectual and practical realities of living well as individuals and with others in the era of climate change’ (p.49).
Narrative inquiry is an example of a knowledge tradition living on the margins of what is widely accepted as academic research yet narrative methodology perhaps holds potential for the reshaping of knowledge structures. For my PhD I explored the experiences of three early career primary mathematics teachers through narrative inquiry. As I inquired, I encountered what might be termed grand narratives of deficit associated with the teaching of primary mathematics. I observed these narratives as perpetuated by a fast-paced drive to establish ‘what works’ and a quick recourse to making distinctions between novices and experts. Some reflections since completing my PhD, offered at a recent TLC gathering, have been on Slow processes I consider as inherent to narrative inquiry. Ulmer (2017) uses Slow (with a capital letter) to mark it as different from everyday uses of the word slow. Taking from Ulmer’s ideas, my use of Slow indicates thoughts of being slow and knowing slow. I currently describe these Slow narrative processes as:
- being with all aspects of a research process all of the time;
- seeking to show rather than tell;
- being comfortable and confident in uncertainty.
In the era of climate change it seems we can no longer pretend to be able to know ‘what works’ and definitions of novices and experts have been irreversibly disrupted. The Slow processes outlined above perhaps offer shapes for different knowledge structures, spaces in which it becomes possible to hear a range of voices and so engage differently with the complexity of lived experience. I offer more detail next.
In contrast to knowledge traditions that separate a research process into constituent parts, narrative inquiry deals with every aspect of a research process all of the time. Studies cannot be wrestled into sections titled ‘data analysis’ or ‘ethics’ or ‘literature review’. Rather, these ways of knowing bump up against each other and the boundaries between them dissolve. The blurred way of shaping knowledge offered by narrative methodologies may perhaps be helpful in supporting engagement with the complex challenges we face in learning to live in more sustainable ways.
In adopting a showing rather than telling position, narrative inquiry invites varied interpretations, so opening opportunities for discussion about ‘what’ might be important to know and ‘how’ we might come to know. The article byNxumalo & ross (2019) is powerful in contrasting showing and telling ways of knowing. The first half of the article tells of persistent narratives of deficit associated with environmental education for Black children in North America. In the second half of the paper we are shown how these issues might be lived, through fictional narratives. The article as a whole speaks to all of the knowings Facer (2020) outlines: complex, emotional, intellectual and practical.
In being comfortable and confident in uncertainty the impulse to make a fast grab for a discernable truth is relinquished; instead space is made to consider what ‘might’ be, or ‘could’ be. This more uncertain position is again illustrated in the second half of the Nxumalo & ross (2019) paper, with the fictional narratives offering awarenesses of what our futures might be like depending on changes we do, or do not, make.
Of course every research tradition has its limits. Narrative research typically takes place over a long period and in a time when the need to act fast becomes more and more pressing, it is perhaps somewhat counterintuitive to suggest a move to slower ways of being and knowing. However, some knowings, ethical ones in particular, take time. Possibly then, Slow knowledge traditions and those based on faster principles might act in complementarity so enabling different knowings of the complexities of living well with ourselves and others in an era of climate change.
Facer, K. (2020). Beyond business as usual: Higher education in the era of climate change. Retrieved from www.hepi.ac.uk
Nxumalo, F., & ross, k. m. (2019). Envisioning Black space in environmental education for young children. Race Ethnicity and Education, 22(4), 502–524. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2019.1592837
Ulmer, J. B. (2017). Writing Slow Ontology. Qualitative Inquiry, 23(3), 201–211. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800416643994
Caroline Ormesher is a teacher educator at Bath Spa University. She recently completed her PhD at the University of Bristol. These views are her own.