Preservice teachers working with narrative inquiry.

Application of inquiry in teacher education is gaining momentum. Inquiry is used to build connections with the local community (Nicholas, Baker-Sennett, McClanahan, & Harwood, 2012), student-centered inquiry is used as a curricular model (Oliver et al., 2015), inquiry is used to accentuate the concerns of teacher students and thereby improve teacher educator instruction (Salerno & Kibler, 2015). In a Danish context the application of inquiry has been introduced in a teacher education module – ‘Efterskolepædagogik’ - focusing on the pedagogue of Danish youth folk high schools. These schools are a special type of private boarding schools attracting lower secondary school youth age 14 to 18. These schools are based on a pedagogic tradition that emphasizes narratives as a central part in the teaching and the entire school praxis (Oettingen, 2011; Rahbek & Møller, 2015). The ‘Efterskolepædagogik’-module is a 6 week full-time study including a 2 weeks stay at a youth folk high school, where the teacher students are to focus on a self-determined element of the praxis. The students are to study this focus through narrative inquiry based on the North-American tradition within narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 1994; Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Pinnegar & Daynes, 2007). This tradition places peoples’ experiences of everyday phenomenon at the center of the investigation. Narrative inquiry can be divided into three phases: 1) generating narrative data (i.e. interviews and observation), 2) performing narrative analysis and 3) finally narrative communication of the findings. The intention is to create coherent narratives of the participants and their everyday. The presentation will introduce the instruction given to the students and present some of the generated narratives. The presentation will invite to joint reflection on the relevance of narrative inquiry in preservice teacher education. References: Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (1994). Personal experience methods. In N. K. Denzin, & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (first ed., pp. 413-427). California: Sage Publications. Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Nicholas, T. M., Baker-Sennett, J., McClanahan, L., & Harwood, A. (2012). Building preservice teachers' connections with communities through inquiry. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 24(2), 221-238. Oettingen, A. v. (2011). Dannelse der virker: Efterskolens pædagogik. Århus; Kbh.; Esbjerg: Klim; i samarbejde med Efterskolerne; University College Syddanmark. Oliver, K. L., Oesterreich, H. A., Aranda, R., Archeleta, J., Blazer, C., de, l. C., . . . Robinson, R. (2015). "The sweetness of struggle": Innovation in physical education teacher education through "student-centered inquiry as curriculum" in a physical education methods course. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 20(1), 97-115. Pinnegar, S., & Daynes, J. G. (2007). Locating narrative inquiry historically: Thematics in the turn to narrative. In D. J. Clandinin (Ed.), Handbook of narrative inquiry (First ed., pp. 3-34). California: SAGE publication. Rahbek, R. K., & Møller, J.,f.1981-01-26. (2015). Højskolepædagogik : En fortælling om livsoplysning i praksis. Aarhus; Kbh.: Klim; i samarbejde med Folkehøjskolernes Forening. Salerno, A. S., & Kibler, A. K. (2015). Questions they ask: Considering teacher-inquiry questions posed by pre-service english teachers. Educational Action Research, 23(3), 399-415.