The aim of this research is to explore the everyday narratives for two year 5 teachers in a primary school when asked to implement a lifelong learning project into their classroom. Teachers have few opportunities to pause and reflect on their professional practice, so the two year 5 teachers were highly motivated to engage with the research given that the Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory (ELLI) was being piloted in their classes. With this purpose, I undertook a narrative approach.
There was also a strong rationale behind providing the teachers with a space in which to have a reflective conversation to allow their narratives to be told. This came from an underlying concept within ELLI, that students have the opportunity to reflect upon their own learning and yet it is not naturally inbuilt for the teachers. The teacher participants constructed a narrative over time as they explored both the negative and positive aspects of implementing a lifelong learning project.
In my analysis I was interested in both the structural element to how the narrative is spoken but also what significant themes are produced across the narratives and the commonalities found. The analysis is a combination of work based on Gee (1991), Mischler (1995) and Riessman (2008) and includes my own part in the co-construction of the narrative.
The narratives allow the teachers to explore their pedagogy and belief system into lifelong learning not only for the children but also for themselves. I identified and interpreted the significant themes from the teachers’ narratives, reflecting how they link to the literature review and the identified learning dimensions within ELLI. Although the experience is around the lifelong learning project, the narrative that unfolds goes far beyond this and reflects very much the individual belief systems, ethical viewpoints, experience, culture and pedagogy as teachers.
Key words: narrative, lifelong learning, reflective conversation, ELLI, teachers, professional practice.
