ABSTRACT
In this chapter we focus on the role of narrative as a core pedagogical tool in inquiry-based learning. Somewhat neglected in learning theory, narrative provides us with a tool for what Bauman describes as ‘the unfamiliar task of theorising a formative process which is not guided from the start by the target form, designed in advance’ (2001: 139). Contemporary explorations in inquiry-based learning seek to engage the learner in a formative process of problem formulation and solving, but necessarily do so in a context where the dominant metaphor is curriculum as prescription, rather than curriculum as narration; where the process of learning is predetermined by the curriculum and assessment requirements and knowledge is pre-packaged in particular subject areas, or disciplines. This inevitably marginalises narrative ways of knowing, and those students and communities (such as Indigenous Australian communities) where this is a primary way of knowing and learning. The approach to inquiry-based learning, discussed by Deakin Crick in a special issue of Curriculum Journal (Deakin Crick 2009), rehabilitates the role of narrative in learning, and it does so in three distinct modes. First, there is the life narrative of the learner; second, the narratives of the particular community of which the learner is a part; and third, the narratives embedded and uncovered by the learner in the process of co-constructing knowledge. Our argument is that when the three horizons of these narratives coalesce in a learning project, then the learning that takes place is personal, transformative and enduring. Not only is the learner constructing new knowledge in response to a particular problem – in an outcome that is measurable in the usual way – but, in doing so, she or he is narrating their own story through the curriculum. There has been a shift to curriculum as narration. Before exploring this further, with examples, we first look at the challenges of curriculum as prescription.
