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Teaching and Teacher Education 27 (2011) 779e787

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Teaching and Teacher Education

journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate/ tate

Creating and facilitating a teacher education curriculum using preserviceteachers’ autobiographical stories

Deidre M. Le Fevre*

Faculty of Education, University of Auckland, Private bag 92601, Auckland 1150, New Zealand

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Received 26 January 2010Received in revised form8 December 2010Accepted 10 January 2011

Keywords:Teacher educationTeacher learningInquiryLiteracyNarrativeCurriculumFacilitation

* Tel.: þ64 11 649 373 7599; fax: þ64 11 649 623 8E-mail address: d.lefevre@auckland.ac.nz.

0742-051X/$ e see front matter � 2011 Published bydoi:10.1016/j.tate.2011.01.003

a b s t r a c t

Preservice teachers’ autobiographical stories can serve as a personal, powerful, and poignant curriculumfor teacher education. This research examines what and how preservice teachers learned through sharingtheir own and witnessing others’ autobiographical narratives in a literacy methods course. The teachereducator’s key role is examined in facilitating a public context of vulnerability inwhich preservice teachersshared painful stories revealing their sociocultural inequalities and personal struggles as literacy learners.Roles of the teacher educator are discussed in the transformation of autobiographies into deep under-standings, universal connections and substantive strategies for preservice teachers to teach literacyeffectively with diverse students.

� 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction

Teacher educators worldwide face the ongoing challenge ofcreating effective ways to engage preservice teachers in learningexperiences that ultimately impact preservice teachers’ capacity tobe effective teachers. This paper responds to international calls forimprovement and innovation in teacher education methods thatprepare teachers for teaching diverse learners (Darling-Hammond,Hammerness, Grossman, Rust, & Shulman, 2005).

When teachers acquire relevant knowledge, skills, and disposi-tions they can significantly improve their capacity to supportvalued learning outcomes for their students (Timplerley, 2008).Situated within this larger international context of seeking learningopportunities for teachers that lead to improvement in teachingmethods, and ultimately, positive learning outcomes for students,this research examines the use of an innovative narrative pedagogyin literacy teacher education.

Narrative approaches to knowing have influenced pedagogiesand research far and wide (see for example, Bishop, Berryman,Cavanagh, & Teddy, 2009; Clandinin & Connelly, 1996; Conle,2003; Rossiter & Clark, 2007). While the use of narrative hasbecome more commonplace in teacher education (Conle, 2003),

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important questions remain in terms of what it affords for learners’development and what is involved in effectively facilitating it ina curricula setting. The present study, set in the context of theUSA was thus guided by the following questions: 1) What are thelearning opportunities for preservice teachers engaged in learningthrough autobiographical stories; and 2) what is the role of theteacher educator in facilitating these?

Firstly, the relevant literature is discussed which provides a theo-retical rationale for incorporating an autobiographical approach intoa teacher education curriculum. A description of preservice teachers’engagementwith autobiographicalwork in a literacymethods teachereducation course follows. Finally, I examine the role of the teachereducator in designing and facilitating a curriculum developed aroundautobiographies and discuss implications for future research andpractice.

1.1. Narrative knowing and learning

It has been claimed that humans are narrative beings and thatwe live in a world of stories: “to be a person is to have a story. Morethan that, it is to be a story” (Kenyon & Randall, 1997, p. 1). Narrativeis the common and universal structure through which people makemeaning of their own and others’ lives and actions (Bruner, 1987).Meaning is continually developing and changing as people’s livedexperiences are storied and re-storied. Narrative inquiry builds onthe significance of narrative as a way of making meaning and views

D.M. Le Fevre / Teaching and Teacher Education 27 (2011) 779e787780

experience as a storied phenomenon (Clandinin, Murphy, Huber, &Orr, 2010; Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). We are not one story,but many stories (Polkinghorne, 1996) and our stories are fromparticular points of view which are prone to change with time(Kenyon & Randall, 1997).

Bruner (1987) claims “The ways of telling and the ways ofconceptualizing that go with them become recipes for structuringexperience itself, for laying down routes into memory, for not onlyguiding the life narrative up to the present but directing it into thefuture” (p. 31).While to some extent our stories are liable to change,we also tend to tell the same particular narratives and this can leadto narrow ways of seeing the past and thus being constrained inour future directions. The idea that people tend to stick withparticular narratives that can unintentionally function to constraintheir choice of future actions is of significance to theorizing abouteffective pedagogies for teacher education. Given what is under-stood about the power of narrative ways of knowing, it may beimportant in teacher education to createways to support preserviceteachers in examining their narratives about literacy learning andteaching, and in thus widening their interpretations, experiences,and possibilities for practice as prospective literacy teachers. Inother words, if in fact existing stories do have such a powerfulimpact on directing one’s future life narrative, then it is important toexamine these stories and understand the influence they can haveon our future actions and beliefs. Both the potential possibilitiesand limitations of the impact personal narratives might have onpreservice teachers future teaching practices motivated the deci-sion in this research to position narrative as a central pedagogicalapproach for preservice teacher learning, and to examine theprocesses and outcomes of this.

1.2. Narrative pedagogy

There is a growing interest in the role of narrative as a pedagog-ical tool; it is becomingmore common in adult education (Rossiter &Clark, 2007) and has been informed by the development of narrativeinquiry methods (Clandinin & Connelly, 1996). Narrative has beendiscussed as a powerful pedagogical tool as it serves to personallyengage people seeking out relevance and offering interpretation(Hazel, 2008; Rossiter & Clark, 2007). Narrative pedagogies incor-porate the use of narrative as a central tool for learningdthey havebeen claimed to “sustain a curriculum design that is democratic,equitable, and socially just” (Forsythe Moore, 2009, p. 12).

At their core, narrative pedagogies involve the re-storying andinterpretation of one’s own and/or others’ lives as a central processof learning. Narrative pedagogies are used in the inservice profes-sional development of teachers, for example, the use of narrative isa key component of an ongoing systemic professional developmentinitiative (Te Kotahitanga) for inservice teachers in New Zealandhigh schools (Bishop, Berryman, Cavanagh, & Teddy, 2009). Theautobiographical narratives of high school students are a centralresource in this initiative and are used as a “means of understandinghow students experienced schooling in ways that teachers mightnot otherwise have access to” (p. 736). The student narrativesprovide a way for teachers to examine their own teaching, beliefs,and practices, and the impact these might have upon their students.

Narrative pedagogies have emerged in professional preparationprogrammes for nurses and teachers. For example, research exam-ining the learning outcomes of narrative-based pedagogies forpreservice nurses has been undertaken in a number of countriesincluding Sweden, Japan, The USA and Canada (see for example,Ironside, 2006; Kawashima, 2005; Swenson & Sims, 2000). Researchhas also been undertaken in a number of different teacher learningcontexts (see for example, Bishop et al., 2009; Rossiter & Clark,2007). Findings indicate narrative pedagogies are effective as

away for nurses and teachers to deepen understanding of how theirown and others’ life experiences influence and inform their theoriesin action (Argyris & Schon, 1974) as they engage in professionalpractice.

A significant, but perhaps under-developed, aspect of narrativepedagogy is the role of the instructor’s (or others’) support in helpingto make transparent existing meaning systems, to support criticalreflection on the story one chooses to tell, and to link understandingsgained through re-storying to actions and futureways of being in theworld. It is more than the telling of a story, but the ongoing inter-rogation of meaning and action that is of considerable importance.An increasingly popular formof narrative pedagogy in adult learningis the use of autobiography, in other words the telling of stories ofoneself (Rossiter & Clark, 2007). However, further investigation intothe affordances for learning of intentionally using narrative ways ofknowing as a pedagogical practice is needed.

1.3. Autobiography in adult learning

Research in adult development indicates that the writing ofautobiographies can support adult learners to bring a sense of orderto life, highlight moments of decision, bring closure to painfulevents, and gain insight into their own development (Karpiak,2000). Rossiter and Clark (2007) claim personal stories have thepotential tomake curricular contentmore real,more immediate, andmore personal. The use of personal stories is considered to functionto create a more complex level of engagement in adult education.Educators can use student autobiographical work to assist studentsin critiquing the larger stories inwhich they have beenpositioned, tore-story their own lives and relationships and to author a morecomplete self and world story (Randall, 1996). Elbaz-Luwisch (2010)suggests an overlapping set of purposes for the inclusion of autobi-ography in teacher development. These include clarifying one’s ownstory, as a platform for reflection, and to communicate with others,in this way contributing to the professional development of theirpeers. In so doing, it is claimed that both thewriter and audience canhave opportunities “to question, and critique, and to gain newunderstandings” (p. 311).

However, many questions still exist. For example, how can auto-biographical stories be used to challenge people’s existing beliefs andpractices of learning and teaching literacy? In addition, the sharing ofautobiographical work has been viewed as inherently risky (Behar,1996). It involves exposure of the personal and opens people up topotential vulnerability. Given this potential for vulnerability it istherefore important to ask: what is involved in facilitating learningthrough the process of writing and sharing autobiographies in a safeway?

1.4. Autobiography as a curriculum for preservice teachers

It can be argued that “curriculum” and “pedagogy” are not easilydifferentiated. For example, Doyle (1996) discusses curriculum asa pedagogical event and views it as being achieved “during acts ofteaching” (p. 486). For the purposes of this paper I use a definitionof curriculum that is aligned with Doyle’s (1996) work to theextent that the curriculum is considered to include both what is tobe learned and how it is intended to be learned. In other words, theterm curriculum refers to both the content of preservice teacherlearning and the pedagogical approaches in which it is embedded.

The idea of autobiography as a curriculum positions a key sourceof knowledge with the learner. Rather than bringing in expertisefrom outside the learners’ experience, it capitalizes on the livedautobiographical stories of these beginning teachers so that theymight learn about learning and teaching through telling, inter-preting, and problemetising their own worlds (Freire, 1970).

D.M. Le Fevre / Teaching and Teacher Education 27 (2011) 779e787 781

It is well recognized that beginning teachers tend to re-enact theexperiences of teaching and learning they had as students inschools (Lortie,1975). This tends to remain the case unless they gainsome kind of awareness of these cultural scripts (Stigler & Hiebert,1999) and intentionally counter them (Britsman, 1986). Preserviceteachers’ identities and histories are a part of the conscious andunconscious development of their theories of teaching (Ritchie &Wilson, 2000). Therefore, just raising awareness of existing storiesis not enough. Autobiographical stories in themselves do notconstitute a curriculum, rather, these stories need to be revealedand investigated in relation to existing theories and ideas.

Autobiography might become a curriculum for learning if thework is designed and facilitated to be used in intentional waystoward valued learning goals. Narratives have potential as a richplatform to both make visible some of one’s existing theories andbeliefs about learning and teaching and fromwhich to develop newtheories and beliefs. However, the mere retelling of one’s story isnot sufficient to challenge one’s pre-existing beliefs and may, to thecontrary, function to further reinforce them. Rather, autobiographycan become a lens through which to, for example, examine one’sown classroom and to reflect on the experiences of one’s ownstudents in an ongoing attempt to critique and re-story thesocializing narratives encountered in student teaching (Kenyon &Randall, 1997; Ritchie & Wilson, 2000).

Because stories in and of themselves are insufficient to bringabout substantive change, this research examines the use and facil-itation of autobiographical stories in intentionally shaping a curric-ulum for learning about literacy teaching. Freire (1970) suggestspeople learn best when they are able to name and problemetisetheir own worlds. Thus, the intentional and facilitated use of auto-biographical stories might have the potential to make importantideas about literacy learning and teaching even more pertinentand memorable to an individual. While there are descriptions inthe international literature of participant engagement in narrativepedagogies, receiving limited attention has been the role of theinstructor or facilitator in effectively facilitating learning throughnarrative pedagogies.

This paper reports on a teacher education initiative in whichpreservice teachers created and shared their autobiographicalstories. These stories were used in turn as “shared texts” fromwhichto have whole class discussions about learning and teaching beyondthe individual and their autobiography. From this perspective, theautobiographical stories, the context of publicly discussing stories,and the discussion of implications for learning and teaching literacyeffectively became a narrative-based pedagogy or curriculum.

Forsythe Moore (2009) claims “understanding our narrativesdevelops a deeper empathy for the lives of the learners before us”(p. 16). The use of preservice teachers autobiographical stories aslearners of literacy is examined in this research for the potentialto engage preservice teachers with significant issues in literacyteaching they are likely to face in their own classrooms. A rationalefor this is that “gaining a deeper awareness about our own condi-tioning is to take more effective action in the world” (Ada &Campoy, 2004, p. 28).

2. Method

2.1. Autobiographical task and participants

Students in primary teacher education literacy methods coursescreated and shared their personal literacy autobiography. The courseswere part of a 15-month graduate primary teaching accreditationprogramme designed for students who had previously completed anundergraduate degree. I was the sole instructor responsible forcurriculum design, teaching, and student assessment. The courses

were taught for three consecutive years in a satellite campus ofa large research university in the USA. Each coursewas one academicyear in duration and consisted of 28 three-hour classes following thesame content and format. The location of the satellite campus meantthat the courses served amixof students in relation to socioeconomicmeans. Severalwere first-generation university studentswithin theirextended families. The objectives for this coursewere fairly typical ofa literacy methods course offered to support preservice teachersin teaching literacy and thus it is suggested that findings fromthis research might inform teacher educators in other contexts andlocations.

Approximately 25 teacher education students (preserviceteachers) were in each course (75 students in total). At least two-thirds of the students were older students for whom teaching wasa career change.

During the first eight weeks of the course there was an intensefocus on autobiographical work. My intention was for thesepreservice teachers to examine some of their stories of literacylearning, to locate and examine thesewithin larger cultural contextsand to use them to increase their awareness of the potential expe-riences of the young people in their future classrooms. The purposeof this autobiographical work was explained to students in writingas follows:

As primary school teachers you will be asking your students toengage in reading and writing activities. Some students willenthusiastically jump at the chance to take on a writing assign-ment or to read a new book while others will sigh miserably atthe prospect. It is important to take a look at your own experi-ences with reading and writing, the good, the bad, the adven-turous, and themundane. Your experiences, attitudes, and beliefsabout literacy influencewho you are as a teacher of literacy. It canbe helpful to begin to uncover these early experiences, attitudesand beliefs and to examine the impact theymay have had onwhoyou are today. By sharing some autobiographical informationwithin class you will also have the opportunity to witness thevariety in others’ literacy histories. Acknowledging this varietycan assist us as we encounter students who are variously reluc-tant, scared, enthused, and inspired about getting involved inliteracy in our own classrooms.

The preservice teachers were asked to create a literacy autobi-ography. Each person subsequently had 10e15 min to share theirautobiography with the whole class. As the course instructor Ifacilitated a brief whole-class reflective discussion following eachstudent’s presentation. Further conversations and work related tothe autobiographies emerged later in the course as topics relevantto autobiographical stories were covered.

2.2. Data analysis

This article draws on four sources of data: (1) 75 autobio-graphical stories (one for each student across three classes); (2) 75reflective papers written by preservice teachers after all presenta-tions of autobiographies had been made. In these reflections theyresponded to guiding questions regarding what they had learned;what was challenging; how the autobiographical work informedtheir development as a prospective teacher; what surprised them;and how they were affected by witnessing the autobiographiesof others. (3) a one-page ‘perceptions of learning’ questionnaireadministered to 71 students by a colleague, 5 months followingcompletion of the courses. The delay in administering these wasintended to reduce the possibility of preservice teachers respond-ing in ways that might be viewed favorably by the instructor and toenable preservice teachers to take a longer-term retrospective viewon their learning; and (4) my own teaching/research journal kept

D.M. Le Fevre / Teaching and Teacher Education 27 (2011) 779e787782

throughout the course. Initially I made notes about the process ofcreating autobiographies and student presentations. In subsequentweeks I made note of instances when reference was made toautobiographical stories, recording the nature of the stories andconnection to learning, and differentiating between when this wasinitiated by myself and when it was student initiated.

Cases are presented in the findings from across the three cour-ses. All data were collected and analyzed by the author. Data wereanalyzed using a grounded theory approach (Glaser & Strauss,1967). This enabled the researcher to consider a range of possibleconceptual categories that might contribute to explaining thesignificance of student experiences. Initial categories were devel-oped around the focus of student autobiographical content (e.g.,economic challenges, struggles with decoding, fear of public failurein the classroom). With time, these categories developed intoa framework in terms of what learning for preservice teachers inthe course the autobiographical work promoted (e.g., empathy ofsociocultural circumstances that affect literacy learning opportu-nities, identification of specific reading difficulties, understandingof the impact that classroom literacy practices have on youngpeople’s perceptions of themselves as competent learners). Even-tually, through the writing of research memos and the overview ofdata further connections were made that resulted in the conceptualideas presented here. Categories remained fluid throughout initialdata analysis until they became clearly representative of the data.Data were aggregated because the overarching themes acrosseach course were consistent. Initially, data from each course wasanalyzed. When it was evident that the same themes were recur-rent across each of the three courses, the decision was made tocombine the student data, thus providing a larger pool of data.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Preservice teacher learning

Analysis revealed three overarching processes contributed topreservice teacher learning: problemetising dominant stories,developing a community of learners, and understanding differentperspectives.

3.1.1. Problemetising dominant storiesTracy was a preservice teacher in the course. It was the third

week of autobiography presentations and Tracy carried two foldersinto her teacher education class. One contained representation ofa painful story she had recently reconstructed as she pieced togetherfragments of her childhood memories. The other was a safe andcomfortable story she had re-told over the years to create a sociallyconforming and acceptable representation of this same early literacyexperience. She shared the painful story while her props for thecomfortable and socially acceptable one sat close beside her con-cealed in a bag, ready to be shared in case the classroom environ-ment suddenly ceased to be safe enough for her to be so “real” andvulnerable.

The story Tracy shared was of how her mother would placea packet inside her favorite picture book. Tracy would then runfrom the playground where she was playing by her mother toa stranger identified by her mother and hand them her book.The stranger would shove the packet Tracy handed them into theirpocket. Next Tracy told of some of these people reading her book toher and of others muttering something about not being able to readand quickly tucking another package inside the cover of her bookand sending her back to her mother who patiently waited for heracross the park. Inside the cover of her book would be the moneyfor her mother, payment for the small illegal package of drugs justhand delivered by this child (Autobio/Present/JM).

Later in life Tracy pieced together the parts of this story. The“acceptable” story she had in her bag was that this was her favoritepicture book and everyone in the world, including her mother,would read it to her. Her life was in fact a void of books and reading.This day in her teacher education class she decided it was safe tomake public her re-storied autobiography. Much of the storying ofour lives is produced out of the stories that float around in thecultural soup in which we swim (Winslade & Monk, 1999).The cultural contexts in which Tracy lives have required her to tellherself and others an ‘acceptable’ story for many years. Tracy’s storyand the class discussion that ensued opened up the opportunity forpreservice teachers in this classroom to problemetise the dominantstories of literacy they tended to hold of preservice teachers havinghad positive, and valued literacy experiences in their own lives.Clandinin et al. (2010) acknowledge the dangers of “learning to liveand tell different stories as counterstories to the dominant insti-tutional, cultural, and social narratives that shape the landscape”(p. 84). The presence of Tracy’s ‘alternative’ autobiography inthe brown paper bag indicated the danger she sensed in sharingmaterial that did not fit within the expected landscape ofa preservice teacher’s literacy experiences.

It came as a shock to several beginning teachers when theyrecognized that the straightforward story of learning to read andenjoying reading they thought should apply to their life as a personwanting to be a teacher was not their actual experience, or theexperience of several of their peers. Embarrassment, pain, andshame were often associated with this realization, at least until thesharingof several autobiographies had takenplace andpeople beganto realize that they were not alone. People tend to create stories tomake sense of their lives and to ensure that their narrative makessense over time (Cohler, 1982). Indeed, Cohler suggests that failureto maintain a coherent personal narrative can lead to a sense offragmentation in one’s life. For several beginning teachers like Tracy(carrying her picture book of illegal drugs) the need for a coherentnarrative may have lead to the creation of narratives to fit withwhat they believed their experiences of literacy “should” have beenrather than what they actually were. However, through this auto-biographical work they were able to juxtapose their experiencesalongside those of their peers, sometimes finding connections thatempowered them to validate their own stories. For example, Leah,reflected:

Many other people struggled with reading and comprehensionthe way I did. It was a relief to know that I wasn’t alone (Percept/FH: p. 1, para 3).

And Siva wrote,

I am not alone! Seriously, that is what I kept thinking as peopletalked and shared their autobiographies. I connected with themand their hard times when they were younger, other peoplehere struggled with learning to read and write. I really trulythought I was the only one. (Reflect/SL, p. 1)

Siva’s comments surface a significant opportunity for learningthat was created out of this work, that is, the development of a safeyet challenging community context for learning.

3.1.2. Developing a community of learnersHuberman (1995) suggests that telling the story of one’s life is

often a vehicle for creating some distance from that experience,and, thereby of making it an object of reflection. Telling the deepversus surface stories was a goal of this course. Deep stories tend tobe elusive. These are the stories that may be buried deep and thatoften seem too painful, embarrassing, or complex to share (Kenyon& Randall, 1997). It was the process of revealing these deep storiesto both oneself and to one’s peers that resulted in the creation of

D.M. Le Fevre / Teaching and Teacher Education 27 (2011) 779e787 783

a shared space inwhich to talk about learning and teaching, and thereality of the struggles for young people and their teachers. In herreflective paper Siva wrote:

This autobiography has meant a great deal to me. It has forcedme to take a hard look at my life as a young student, reflect onmy experiences, and find the relationship they have to myteaching styles and beliefs. It has forced me to open myself up tothe self-ridicule and the reality that I was the type of student Iwould not hope to see in my classroom: unmotivated, unwilling,and disinterested. While preparing for this assignment I havelearned much about myself, including reasons I struggled inschool, the reasons I hated reading and writing, the reasons Isucceeded in the end, and the reasons I now want to bea teacher.

An unintended but positive consequence of this autobiograph-ical work was the extent to which the preservice teachers felt thesharing of autobiographical material had helped to develop a strongsense of community in the class. For example, Jay wrote: “It wasawkward at times, but it was a great strength to the community ofour class”(Percept/LB: p. 1, para 2), and Jenny wrote: “Studentsespecially seemed to rally around thosewho’d stuck their necks outand shared very emotional memories. This made the class feel likea tight community and a safe place to explore ideas and take risks”(Percept/JH: p. 1, para 3). In addition, there was an awareness of thedegree of diversity present in the community, for example Jack said,“All the kids I will ever be teaching, every classroom Iwill ever have,were in this classroom [the teacher education literacy methodsclass]. These people who are all going to be teachers are so muchmore diverse than I ever imagined, I just couldn’t see it before.”(Percept/RM: p. 1, para 2).

3.1.3. Understanding different perspectivesWitnessing others’ autobiographies was a way to understand

different perspectives. This was significant in terms of under-standing the different perspectives of both peers and young people.

At times, the juxtaposition of different stories and interpreta-tions was unintentionally but effectively stark. On one occasionfor example, Jennifer shared her autobiographical story first andexplained:

Book orders are due back September 10. The sound of those twowords, book orders, still excites me. In elementary school I couldhardly wait. I always looked forward to bringing home the bookorders, gazing at the colorful pages and pestering myMum untilshe told me how many books I could chose to order. I havealways loved reading, I have always been good at reading and Ihave had many people in my life who read with me regularly(Autobio/JG: p. 2).

Twentyminutes later Dawn stood up to share her autobiographyand said:

I hated Fridays. Friday was the day that book orders were givenout and even worse, the day that book orders were delivered. Iwould make up endless stories to explain to my classmates whymy Mother could never afford to buy a book, in fact we couldn’teven afford paper at home for homework. My Mother wouldcarefully cut up the brown paper supermarket bags for me to domy homework on. The homework I had to struggle with alonesince my Mother could not read herself. A fact I did not fullyunderstand until I was nine (Autobio/Present: AL).

Contrasting stories provided a vivid way to examine differentexperiences and perspectives. The stories identified gulfs in theexperiences of these preservice teachers. As Sheryl (Percept/DB: p.1, para 2) wrote “I thought that I was reasonably wise in the world

and yet I was still amazed to find that what I loved and felt sopassionate about in my literacy learning others hated or wereterrified of.” Many people witnessing these autobiographies facedtheir own sense of privilege and/or feelings of loss. For example,Jack commented:

I was not told people had differences, or shown, I experiencedthe differences as recreated. This has had a significant impact onmy learning, even more than the work in creating my ownautobiography. It is inwitnessing others’ stories and delving intothe implications for teaching that is the most powerful for me.(Percept, RM: p. 1, para 5)

And Lisa said,

My autobiography didn’t bring about any major “ahas” for me,but hearing the autobiographies of others was really powerful.They really made me think about learning and teaching, aboutwhat sort of opportunities I want to provide as a teacher ofliteracy for my students (Percept/LF: p. 1, para 4).

Learning about oneself was closely connected to learning aboutstudents and teaching.

The preservice teachers’ comments indicate how developinga deeper understanding of one’s own perspective can also serve toincrease awareness of the significance of others’ perspectives, inparticular, the possible perspectives of students theywill likely teach.

3.2. Autobiography as curriculum

Wood (2000) suggests stories told from the teacher’s perspec-tive can become texts for professional reflection and dialog. Thepreservice teachers’ lives as represented through their autobiogra-phies became the curriculum texts of these three literacy methodsclasses. The autobiographies specific to each class of preserviceteachers subsequently became key resources for examining specificliteracy instruction strategies and concepts. Initiated by bothpreservice teachers and instructor, autobiographies were revisitedas they related to specific topics subsequently covered in the course.

3.2.1. Creating intentional connectionThe creation of a teacher education literacy methods curriculum

using preservice teachers’ autobiographical stories did not happenincidentally or haphazardly. Rather, as the instructor, I made severalintentional connections in my planning prior to class sessions. Theteacher educator has the task of making autobiographical connec-tions with the existing course content (Rossiter & Clark, 2007).The overarching themes that developed from autobiographies wereconsistent across the three coursesdfor example, the injusticesof impoverished socioeconomic circumstances, specific readingdifficulties, or challenges in learning to write were common.

As the instructor, I would look at preservice teachers’ autobi-ographies andmake decisions regarding which ones provided vividand relevant material to support specific pre-assigned topics andwould seek student permission to refer to these. However, a notionof curriculum needs to include both planned and informal learningexperiences (Conle, 2003). Informal experiences were also evidentthrough the spontaneous interpretations and connections made bythe preservice teachers regarding the autobiographical stories anddiscussion they had witnessed and the current topics of study.

Significant is the criticism of much professional learning forteachers as being a patchwork of fragmented and disconnectedopportunities without clear connections to improving the practiceof teaching (Ball & Cohen, 1999; Wilson & Berne, 1999). I thereforeintentionally created a curriculum that was connected both to theoverarching objectives for preservice teacher learning in literacy

While growing up I had many ear infections that caused me to hear words incorrectly. This made it very

difficult for me to learn how to say words correctly and when it came time to learn how to read this was

absolutely debilitating. I was unsure of what the sound of each letter and letter combination made, so it was

very difficult to sound out the words on the page and I often said them incorrectly. Eventually, I became

very frustrated and thought that I was stupid, even though my teachers and parents often told me

otherwise. They constantly encouraged me to keep trying.

Fig. 2. Extract from Megan’s Autobiography.

D.M. Le Fevre / Teaching and Teacher Education 27 (2011) 779e787784

teaching and that was aligned with themes that emerged fromstudent autobiographical work.

Next I identify three significant aspects of the curriculum thatwere created through the integration of the preservice teachers’autobiographical work.

3.2.2. Identifying problematic literacy teaching practicesSeveral autobiographical stories informed the critique of literacy

teaching strategies, for example, when we addressed the effectsof requiring young people to take turns reading aloud in class(sometimes referred to as “round-robin” reading), rather thanbeginning with research or a literacy text the preservice teachersrecalled Al’s autobiographical story. Al recollects memories of beingin school wherein each student took a turn reading aloud in front ofthe class. From Al’s perspective, all the other students were able toread “nicely”, but when it was Al’s turn to read,

Al (Autobio/ZA: p. 9) intentionally created a font (Fig. 1) that wasso small it was a strain to read to his colleagues as he shared thismemory. The poignancy and immediacy of Al’s autobiographicalstory and the intensity of emotion it created for many of his peers inclass created a strong place fromwhich to examine the limitations ofa specific literacy strategy commonly used in primary classrooms.

3.2.3. Illuminating literacy learning challengesAutobiographies functioned as a curriculum in the way that the

preservice teachers could witness first-hand the impact literacylearning difficulties could have on a learner. For example, whenthe class discussed the effects of visual processing challenges ondecoding a primary text was a part of Megan’s autobiography(Autobio/JA: p. 6, para 1). Megan’s autobiography contained text(Fig. 2) that was again intentionally created as difficult to read in anattempt to provide some insight into her decoding challenges.

3.2.4. Creating connections between experience, theory, andpractice

Integrating theory and practice is an ongoing challenge inteacher education, however, the autobiographical stories of thesepreservice teachers functioned as a bridge between experience,theory and practice. Preservice teachers were heard to respond toone another’s autobiographical narratives in spontaneous andvisceral ways. Witnessing the autobiographical stories of peers inaddition to examining theoretical ideas in textbooks createda “sense of resonance” (Conle, 1996) between stories, theory, andteaching practices. The telling of autobiographical stories createdconnections with preservice teachers’ observations of youngpeople in their placement classrooms and prompted discussion ofthe opportunities and challenges posed by the various approachesand strategies they had observed in relation to theoretical ideasabout effective literacy teaching. These observations and discus-sions developed into an examination of research and theory aboutspecific literacy teaching strategies, grounded in experiences andactual problems of practice.

His hands went clammy

Sweat dripped from his forehead

His throat went dry

His breathing shallowed

And he stumbled across the written words

Like an oddly shaped stone skipping across a choppy pond

Searching for a place to sink.

Fig. 1. Extract from Al’s Autobiography.

It is apparent from the examples provided here that this researchfocuses on the stories that might be considered problematic orchallenging to some extent. This was, however, typical. It was rarefor somebody to stand up and present a simplistic and straightfor-ward account of their experiences as a learner of literacy. Onemighthypothesize that this was because the norm of the problematicwas set up in these classes once people began presenting theirautobiographies, however, this was not the case. All preserviceteachers provided copies of their autobiographical stories to theinstructor prior to any presentations being given in class.

In addition to what might be considered more ‘technical’ topicssuch as decoding and comprehension issues, the autobiographiesbecame the curriculumwhen discussing issues of access to literacy,expectations for achievement, and larger sociocultural issues. Theyprovided a living context of segments of the possible lives andworlds that the students of these preservice teachers might inhabitand some indication of how they might affect the young people’sliteracy learning in the classroom. The stories generated becamea means through which the preservice teachers could steer theirown practice, thus relying on their own insights rather than turningto outside expertise for guidance (Wood, 2000).

For autobiography to be curriculum takes more than the tellingof stories; it also involves making connections between stories,theory and practice in teaching literacy. From this perspective, thepreservice teacher autobiographies did not become the curriculumuntil publicly shared and negotiated, and connected to theoreticalideas and practices of teaching literacy. The teacher educator hada critical role in orchestrating this.

3.3. Roles of the teacher educator

The processes involved in building autobiographical work intoa literacy teacher education curriculum were much more intenseand emotionally laden than I had envisionedwhen first introducingthis idea into the course. This research indicates that for this workto be effective there are several key roles that the teacher educatorneeds to fulfill. I identify three main themes and discuss these inthe following sections.

3.3.1. Understanding vulnerability in exposing thepersonal and political

Many of the dominant stories that govern our lives weregenerated during our early childhood (Winslade & Monk, 1999).Some of these dominant stories continue to influence what wethink about ourselveswhile others seem buried deep and forgotten.These stories can create problems for us. If as teacher educators weask our students to dig up the forgotten and buried stories, we needto be prepared to work with the vulnerability, emotion, andcommunity-needs that might be dug up along with these. If we

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require people to make their stories public, then we need to beprepared to support both the person sharing their autobiographyand their audience.

Lisa says in her reflective paper:Compiling my autobiography was somewhat of a tough feat forme, not because it was painful but because I could not rememberthe stepping-stones to my literacy. I could see the faces ofteachers I had in elementary, middle, and high school but Icouldn’t seem to rememberwhat they did orhow they helpedmeto grow as a reader and writer. So I called my mother to see whatshe remembered of my early childhood. Then it started to comeback to me and I realized that I had actually kind of intentionallyforgotten, that it was hard, that I’d rather be outside [as a child]than trying to learn to read (Reflect/LF: p. 2, para 1).

The creation of a “safe yet challenging” learning environment isessential (Le Fevre, 2003). There is a need to create environments inwhich teachers feel confident to raise and discuss complicated andsensitive issues and to risk self-revelation.

Stories can lead us into a serious sea of enormous social issues(Behar, 1996). What do we do with these stories? How do wefacilitate conversation when someone begins to talk about thepower of a book that they used as their “escape” to deal with theaftermath of being raped at age 15? (Autobio/PA:p.2). Or the storyof a Father leaving in the middle of the night to go to the war, “thesmell of aviation fuel on his jacket.” Going on to talk of the placethat the weekly arrival of letters from her Father had in her ownliteracy development as she began to learn to read and write bycorresponding with her father in the military, “only for my Fathernever to return” (Autobio/Present:NP).

People uncovered the unexpected, the story behind the story.They exposed a raw story that had been covered up, forgotten,explained through the creation of alternative stories over the years.Reconstructing stories to reveal the deep and important stories inautobiographical work can create vulnerability. Clearly vulnera-bility is not for everyone, nor should it be (Behar, 1996). However,everyone needs to be able to respond to vulnerability whensomebody has placed themselves in this position. Thus, it is notonly an issue of vulnerability for the presenter, but also for theaudience. Boler (1999) contends that “listening is fraught withemotional landmines” (p. 179). For example, when a student talkedof the book she found her solace in during the aftermath of havingbeen raped, it sparked several others in remembering books thatwere their solace in differently upsetting circumstances and tofurther uncover the reasons why.

Leitch (1986) discusses the notion that the audience gives thenarrative meaning and that “narrative receptivity” requires thatthe audience make connections with their own knowledge andexperiences. Vulnerability can be a very real part of this process.The development of ground rules before they created or sharedtheir autobiographical stories encouraged preservice teachers totake risks in exposing their vulnerability. For example, Kathy noted“I had to think about things I have spent the last twenty plus yearsgetting over and keeping back in the rarely recalled recesses of mymemory” and commented on the significance of ground rulesaround the development of community that enabled her to do this(Reflect/PA: p. 1).

The provision of a supportive environment is a key role of theteacher educator facilitating learning that involves sharing auto-biographical work (Rossiter & Clark, 2007). This research illumi-nates the important responsibility of the teacher educator in beingaware of and supporting the potential vulnerability on the part ofboth the presenter and the audience.

Perhaps one of the fundamental ground rules was that the storybelonged to the storyteller, and they were in charge of what they

shared and how it was used. For example, autobiographical mate-rial was only discussedwhen the ‘owner’was present and referenceto it required permission from that person.

3.3.2. Supporting emotion in the classroomSiva cried while presenting her autobiography. Some of the class

cried alongside her, others gave her supportive looks, while otherssquirmed anxiously in their chairs seemingly unsure of where tolook. As the instructor of this course I had times of wondering ifwhat was happening was appropriate. Should I have set up thisclassroom situation in which participants were making themselvesso vulnerable sharing deeply personal issues? Boler (1999)discusses the ethical responsibility of the educator in situationssuch as this and believes “it matters a great deal how the educatorinvites students to engage in collective witnessing” (p. 199). Bolersuggests that the educator may need to “share” the vulnerabilityand to explicitly discuss one’s own emotional challenges within theclassroom.

What made it possible for Tracy to share her real story ratherthan the “safe” alternative story she had prepared was, she com-mented, “the vulnerabilities of others provided a safe environmentfor me to be very candid about my early experiences” (Percept/JM:p. 1, para 2). By establishing an environment in which all preserviceteachers were invited to be vulnerable the safety increased forpreservice teachers, it became an acceptable way of being in thisclass during this time. Sam said,

I learned that the sharing of personal histories can be veryemotional and reveal how vulnerable people may feel. I’ve alsolearned that these deeply personal experiences are meant to beshared and that by sharing, common understanding can happen,community is built by discovering shared meaning (Percept/KA:p. 1, para 2)

Boler (1999) suggests that emotion has been characterized aslocated in the individual, something to be controlled, and somethingprivate that we are taught not to express publicly. She providescompelling evidence of why this is not helpful in education, orindeed in life. She identifies a feminist theoretical stance that viewsemotion to be collaboratively and collectively constructed. Thisautobiographical work aimed to contradict the traditionally privateand individualistic nature of significant stories by locating emotionin the midst of a community and inviting people to share andsupport emotion in a public arena. At the same time, although I didnot need to do this, the class knew I was prepared to interrupt orredirect a presentation if a member of the class indicated to me thatit was making them feel very uncomfortable, if it broke confiden-tiality agreements, was demeaning of another person, or if it wentoutside the agreed upon focus and timeframe.

As the instructor in this setting I saw it as my responsibilityto both support emotion in the classroom and to ensure thecommunity was safe. I discussed this explicitly in the class andseveral of the beginning teachers took it on as a role they viewed ascritical in their own future teaching.

3.3.3. Non-judgmental facilitation of learningRitchie and Wilson (2000) maintain that storytellers tend to

want to please their audience. I needed to avoid the situation inwhich these preservice teachers were shaping their narrativesconsciously or unconsciously to impress me as the instructor in thissetting. The audience inevitably intrudes, shaping the person’sresponse through questions, tone, nonverbal cues, pauses, inter-ruptions and encouragement (Ritchie & Wilson, 2000). My holdingthe dual position of course instructor and evaluator of student workhad the real potential of magnifying the risk that preservice teacherautobiographies and contributions to discussions would be shaped

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in an effort to please me. Boler (1999) discusses the complexities ofpower inequalities and the repercussions for grading withintransformative pedagogical practices. Her view is that it should beclear to students that they are not being graded or evaluated onwhether or how they choose to “transform”, or whether theyundertake radical pedagogies of their own. My goal was alignedwith Boler’s perspective in that my hope was preservice teacherswould examine their values and analyze how they came to holdthose values. However, I did not want to make judgments aboutthis. For this reason the autobiographical work was not evaluatedand assessed with a quantitative grade. Rather, participation wasrequired and individual feedbackwas given in terms ofmy personalresponse to autobiographical work rather than a numerical grade.Student perceptions of learning indicated this was important tothem. For example James said:

I learned that the techniques teachers used 20 or 30 years ago stillhave a powerful effect onmyself andmy peers today. Itmakesmeso conscious of the significance of implications of my decisionsand what I do in the classroom now as a teacher. The fact that Iknew I wasn’t being constantly watched and graded on myautobiography and our class discussions meant I could really askdifficult questions and think about the hard stuff without feelingjudged for what felt like my ignorance (Percept/JA: p. 1).

Perhaps even more important than the agreed upon proceduresfor assessing this assignment was the presence of the teachereducator and the challenging task of trying to be non-judgmentalduring presentations and in facilitating discussions. The tensionsbetween supporting student comments while challenging themto consider alternative interpretations were constant. As theinstructor I wrestled with the need to challenge preservice teachersto examine their perspectives and assumptions about the world.

A goal of this work was for beginning teachers to gain a morecritical and empowered perspective on literacy learning andteaching. To this end the instructor had an important role as a non-judgmental facilitator of learning, of pushing students towarddeeper understandings of the significance of their own and others’stories, and of implications for the wider social and political worldin which the stories were, and continue to be created.

4. Conclusions

Beginning teachers have multiple stories to tell about literacyevents in their lives. It takes support and a safe environment tocreate and make public the painful stories that have been recon-structed in more convenient, comfortable, or socially acceptableways over the years of one’s life. Examination of these storieshas the potential to help preservice teachers to problemetisedominant stories about learning and teaching, develop a commu-nity of learners in which to critically examine practices and beliefsabout literacy, and understand different perspectives about literacy.

The autobiographical stories and the pedagogy within whichtheywere embedded in this research functioned as a curriculum forthese teacher education courses. This research indicates preserviceteachers’ own stories alongside those of their colleagues are animportant way of engaging with literacy teaching issues they arelikely to face in their own teaching. Autobiographical stories arepowerful from the point of view of being situated, personal, andpoignant.

It has been claimed by Kierkegaard that life is lived forwards butunderstood backwards (cited in Peter, 2009). This idea provides aninteresting point for considering the role of narrative as a pedagogyfor teacher learning. In retelling and interpreting stories from one’sown past, and examining stories from the past of one’s peers,these preservice teachers have had opportunities to create

understandings out of their experiences that could affect theirfuture actions as teachers. Their learning included identifyingproblematic literacy practices, illuminating literacy learning chal-lenges, and creating connections between experiences, theory andpractices.

Designing and implementing effective pedagogies for teachereducation remains a key task for educators and researchers in the21st century (Darling-Hammond et al., 2005). The drive to improveteacher education embraces change on multiple levels. It is aboutchanging teacher education pedagogies in ways that increasethe capacity of beginning teachers to be effective and responsiveteachers. This involves changing preservice teachers beliefs andpractices. This research illuminated the interactive nature ofchanging beliefs and practices (Richardson, 1996). The facilitatedsharing of autobiographical stories made salient the differences instudent experiences and the influences of various literacy teachingpractices. With the support of the teacher educator to guide inter-pretation of these autobiographies (Timperley & Robinson, 2002)the autobiographies served as a personal, powerful, and poignantsite for learning.

The themes of the preservice teachers’ autobiographical storiesin this research are not unique to the preservice teachers in thisstudy. For example, the issues of injustices of impoverished socio-economic circumstances, specific reading difficulties, or challengesin learning to write are likely to resonate with other preserviceteacher populations beyond the context of this study. The signifi-cant learning that engagement in this autobiographical workenabled is also relevant to other contexts. Thus, findings from thisresearch can inform other narrative pedagogies where the inten-tion is to develop practitioners who have the knowledge, disposi-tions and skills to be effective.

Future research might take a more longitudinal approach, thusallowing an examination of the relationship between observed andespoused preservice teacher learning in the teacher educationcontext and their subsequent classroom literacy teaching practices.Further examination of the role of the teacher educator in facili-tating this work would also be valuable. As continued researchexamines both the experiences of students and the role of facili-tators in narrative pedagogies, connections can be developed tocreate an even clearer picture of the capacity and limitations ofnarrative as a tool for professional learning across disciplinary,geographical and cultural contexts.

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