Narrative Inquiry for Teacher Education and Development: Focus on English as A Foreign Language in China

Source: Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 25, Issue 2, (February 2009). Pages 219-227

Teacher education and development takes place within an encompassing local system of education and ongoing forms of school improvement. Critical to successful teacher development when Western ideas are being adopted in other cultures is narratively linking development programs to this local education system, such as in China, and to its culturally established ways of knowing and being. The article presents a narrative inquiry approach to teacher development that builds on the existing educational system, ongoing school reforms, and culturally established ways of knowing and being. The article concludes with the potential of teacher development to shape global values that may be shared among cultures.