What is the role of narrative in how people learn throughout their lives?

Are there different patterns and forms of narrativity? How do they influence learning?

Based on data gathered for the Learning Lives project, which sought to understand learning by questioning individuals about their life stories, this book seeks to define a new learning theory which focuses on the role of narrative and narration in learning. Through a number of detailed case-studies based on longitudinal interviews conducted over three and four-year periods with a wide range of life story...

Ivor Goodson and Scherto Gill analyse and discuss a series of trans-disciplinary case studies from diverse cultures and argue that narrative is not only a rich and profound way for humans to make sense of their lives, but also in itself a process of pedagogical encounter, learning and transformation. As pedagogic sites, life narratives allow the individual to critically examine their 'scripts' for learning which are encapsulated in their thought processes, discourses, beliefs and values. Goodson and Gill show how narratives can help educators and students shift from a disenfranchised...

Originally published in 1985. ‘Europe‘ and the EEC seemed to be virtually synonymous for the majority of our population and the ambivalent feelings many people have about the Community, together with the consistently bad press it received in the UK, seemed to engender a hostility in educational circles towards teaching about Europe as a whole. However, if one of the aims of education is to increase children’s awareness, tolerance and understanding of the world about them; to widen their experience and horizons; then teaching about the wider world must have a place in the curriculum....