ABSTRACT
This chapter extends the discussion of narrative through a more complete and focused elaboration of cultural narratives. It explores cultural narratives frequently found in educational texts that serve to persuade people nonrationally and, therefore, it is less interested in the truth or untruth of a cultural narrative and more interested in its meaning and power. The chapter explains the important aspects that make a cultural narrative and present a useful way to analyze the structure of a narrative. It presents some examples of cultural narratives that are influential in educational texts. Critical readers will recognize these and other recurring narratives, which will enable them to read texts about schooling and education with much more depth of understanding and reveal more clearly what the politicians and the policy-makers and the commentators, are doing when they create texts designed to persuade people to support their position.
