Look Both Ways: Narrative and
Metaphor in Education
a conference,
VU University, Amsterdam
30 March-1 April 2017
A three-day conference, ‘Look Both Ways: Narrative and Metaphor in Education,’ the fifth in the series, took place 30 March to 1 April 2017 at VU University in Amsterdam.
Educationists have been strongly influenced by the claims made around thirty years ago that human beings rely on narrative (or storytelling) for making sense of the world. Narrative approaches have been taken up in almost every area of theory and practice in education, with “narrative inquiry” achieving particular prominence. A metaphor perspective has been employed almost as frequently, but in a rather more fragmentary way. As in other disciplines, the narrative perspective and the metaphor perspective have mostly been employed separately. The conference was designed to encourage work which would integrate the two perspectives. All the keynote speakers – Kieran Egan, Jean Clandinin, Vera Caine, Sean Lessard, Martin Cortazzi, Lixian Jin, Hans Fuchs, and Michael Hanne – had previously employed a dual perspective. Around 100 other speakers from many countries and representing every level of education from pre-school to continuing civic education participated. A volume stemming from the conference, entitled “Narrative and Metaphor in Education: Look Both Ways,” edited by Michael Hanne and Anna A. Kaal, is to be published by Routledge in December, 2018. The twenty essays, by forty scholars and practitioners describe and analyse the intricate connections between narrative and metaphor as they manifest themselves in many fields of education, including: concepts of education, teacher identity and reflective practice, teaching across cultures, teaching science and history, using digital and visual media in teaching, fostering reconciliation in a postcolonial context, special needs education, civic and social education, and educational policy-making. Initially published in hardback and electronic format, it should soon be available in paperback. |