ABSTRACT
For the last 20 years, narrative inquiry has become a powerful epistemological framework as well as a methodological orientation, and it has been accepted as a valid method in various fields of research, including education research (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009; Connelly & Clandinin, 2006). Narrative inquiry has also been acknowledged as a valid research framework in second language teacher education (Barkhuizen, 2011; Johnson, 2009a; Johnson & Golombek, 2002, 2011) 1 . Johnson and Golombek (2002) claimed that it is “systematic exploration that is conducted by teachers and for teachers through their own stories and language” (p. 6). Although teachers’ experiences of classroom events and their interpretations are usually structured chronologically, the systematic exploration of their narrative enables teachers to reconstruct them and “reconcile what is known with that which is hidden, selectively infuse those events with interpretation, and actively seek to bring meaning to their experience” (Johnson, 2009a, p. 97). Johnson and Golombek (2002) described the characteristics of narrative inquiry as follows:
… narrative inquiry enables teachers to organize, articulate, and communicate what they know and believe about teaching and who they have become as teachers. Their stories reveal the knowledge, ideas, perspectives, understandings, and experiences that guide their work. Their stories describe the complexities of their practice, trace professional development over time, and reveal the ways in which they make sense of and reconfigure their work. Their stories reflect the struggles, tensions, triumphs, and rewards of their lives as teachers. We believe that, ultimately, narrative inquiry enables teachers not only to make sense of their professional worlds, but also to make significant and worthwhile change within themselves and in their teaching practices. (p. 7)
Although acknowledging its powerful nature in teacher education, the criteria for good narrative inquiry are still open to discussion (Connelly & Clandinin, 2006). In addition, it is challenging for language teachers to articulate and describe their own experiences and objectify them for further analysis. This is partly due to the fact that teaching is so complicated and dynamic (or even messy) that capturing the dynamic interplay of classroom phenomena is not an easy task for the language teachers. Thus, the present study demonstrates how Japanese EFL teachers who joined a teacher inquiry group develop their pedagogical concepts through narrative inquiry. In particular, we focus on a male teacher and analyze his narratives which were told (or written) in two different places; in graduate school and in the classroom. The analysis of narratives shows that the inquiry in two different places “lead[s] to transformed conceptualizations of [himself] as a teacher and transformed modes of engagement in the activities of teaching” (Johnson & Golombek, 2011, p. 490). Another unique feature of the present study is that the teachers wrote their stories by using web applications. These applications functioned as a mediating tool and allowed teachers to reflect upon and share their stories with their colleagues electronically.