Co-creating Learning: Narrative Pedagogy in Action

Diekelmann discovered narrative Pedagogy, a research-based, phenomenological pedagogy, during a longitudinal study of the experiences of nursing students, teachers, and clinicians. Narrative Pedagogy is a way of thinking about nursing education and practice with students and teachers, and of communally and collaboratively exploring new possibilities for improving Schools of Nursing and the care being learned and provided. Teachers enact Narrative Pedagogy by co-creating experiences in which to think together with students and to seek new ways to understand their experiences. In this way, teachers’ and students’ attention shifts from the content being presented and memorized to developing interpretive skills and engaging in questioning inherited practices and processes in nursing.

With Narrative Pedagogy, teachers focus on engaging students in understanding a situation, the assumptions they are making about it, and what might be wrong with the typical or habitual way of responding. Students and teachers consider the context in which the question came up and the options for care that are and are not relevant, safe, appropriate, or desirable in a specific situation or across several situations. Because the use of Narrative Pedagogy is contextual through and through, the complexity of the practice (and patient situations) students encounter is central to the dialogue. Indeed, without understanding the context of the experience, the experience cannot be understood at all.

This presentation will focus on ways teachers can enact Narrative Pedagogy in their classroom and clinical courses. Emphasis will be on cultivating multiperspectival thinking and creating communities for learning within Schools of Nursing.