ABSTRACT
The most powerful kind of teacher knowledge is not formal and abstract but instead personal and purposeful. To develop such teacher knowledge, personal narratives have a pivotal role to play. Personal narratives, told through the teachers’ own lenses, allow them to explore their experiences, develop critical reflection, construct their personal theory of teaching, find their own voices, and above all, grow professionally. Traditional teacher education tends to provide teacher learners with a mélange of ideas that are not necessarily grounded in the realities of teaching. Teacher development, however, is humanistic and constructivist, recognising teachers’ experiences and voices. This chapter illustrates the power of stories as an impetus for teachers’ professional development through sharing of several teacher personal narratives, including my own as well as those gathered from a teacher education course that provides a platform for in-service teachers to construct their personal narratives through reflecting on critical incidents. The teacher stories demonstrate that narrative writing can provide a powerful tool for critical reflection, helping teachers construct a better understanding of themselves, teaching and learning, and what it means to be a teacher. Through finding their voices in narrative writing, teachers are helped to develop into reflective practitioners and change agents.
