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Hi Students and welcome to a unit on case study design.
As you know, I'm your guide and leader today
as you come to deepen your understanding
of stories and narrative in general.
Stories have great value in cultures, and are often used to transmit ideas
through generations and the ages.
In many oral cultures in the world, stories have been used to teach
children and communities about the past,
about religious or cultural knowledge and practices,
and have been used to continue traditions
and thinking throughout time.
In the field of education, stories have been used a great deal
to understand people, communities and lives of individuals
in relation to their cultural or religious background.
In this module, we will explore the value, the great value of stories,
and why they are so powerful in engaging the mind and thoughts.
We will explore the perspectives of story-telling in the workplace
and story-telling functions by highly regarded experts
in the field of narrative enquiry such as Jerome Bruner and Polkinghorne.
As we write our case study,
the first group assignment in our course,
it is important for us to understand the role of narrative inquiry
in education, in designing our case study problem.
Strong narratives are engaging and captivate
the attention of the audience.
As your group begins writing the first assignment,
please think through carefully how you want to frame your story
so that it is interesting to the reader and powerful to the learner.
Analysis Questions.
As we start this module, I would like you to reflect
on the power and effect of stories.
I am sure all of you watched the movie Titanic,
and saw the power of the story of Rose Dawson.
As you might recall, in the movie,
Rose began her story, and her memory of her life
was illustrated through images –
scenes of her life she participated in and with.
As we explore this module, I want you to reflect on stories
like Rose Dawson from the movie Titanic
and explore in your tutorial why stories are so powerful.
We will begin with understanding definitions of stories
and then proceed to analyze the functions of stories
as a form of educational narrative.
Finally, we will look at the role of stories in the workplace.
Because this module is part of a larger case study module,
I would like you to reflect on how you can frame your case study
in the form of a story if you like.
Why Stories?
So to begin, why stories?
Any thoughts?
Jonassen and Hernandez-Serrano, 2002, argue that stories are powerful
because they serve to, quote,
"Support a broad range of problem solving
than any other strategy or tactic." Unquote.
What do they mean by this?
What they mean is that, stories are powerful in conveying information
in a logical and coherent fashion.
They enables one's imagination to create images
of the past and present that captivate one's attention.
What are stories?
Stories are the oldest forms of passing down information and cultural knowledge
in different communities and religions throughout the world.
Before technology became so advanced
where we could capture these stories
in the form of written and digital archives,
stories were used to tell future generations of past events.
People used to memorize details of stories
and tell them and retell them for centuries.
These stories allowed people to keep traditions
and histories alive and intact.
That is why you see, so many people's cultures being preserved.
They have been preserved through storytelling
through myths, fairy tales, and histories.
According to Polkinghorne, an expert on narrative inquiry,
stories have been defined as, quote, "A means by which human beings
give meaning to their experience of temporality and personal actions."
Functions of Stories.
There are many authors who support the idea
that stories are powerful and create meaning.
Of them, the most prominent is Jerome Bruner
who argued that stories are, quote,
"A method of ne-, negotiating and renegotiating meanings". Unquote.
"That allow us to enter into others' realms of meaning."
What does this mean?
It means that through stories we are able to enter into the head space
of another worl-, of another's world, hearing and absorbing
a world view different than our own.
This world view interacts with ours,
forming new and refined versions of old stories.
Bruner also felt that stories help us find our place in a culture
and assist us in sharing our human diversity.
He felt that we, quote,
"Learn, conserve memory, or alter the past" unquote,
through stories.
He felt that stories assist us in, quote,
"In understanding human action, intentionality and temporality."
Unquote.
Finally, he felt that stories allow us to remember
the unusual events that happen in our lives –
strange coincidences and powerful moments.
These in total help us to, quote, "Build persuasive arguments." Unquote.
There are other authorities on the subject who think like Bruner,
but Bruner is by far the authority on the subject
and has contributed greatly to this school of thought.
Stories in the Workplace.
Now that we understand the power of stories and storytelling,
let's explore the role of stories in the workplace,
which is relevant to our task in this course,
where we will create and tell stories of our experiences in our work.
According to Polkinghorne, 1988, an expert on narrative inquiry,
practitioners primarily prefer to work with narrative knowledge
when asked to provide explanations.
An Example of the Value of a Workplace Story.
In a study on the value of workplace narratives,
practitioners and technicians studied,
were most concerned with people's stories.
Jonassen and Hernandez-Serrano, 2002, found that novice technicians
highly benefited from the stories their more experienced
and knowledgeable peers told.
Besides forming and strengthening the bonds that existed between them,
expert tech-, technicians shared stories to novices about, quote,
"Initiation, identity formation, their sense of pride,
and in general about the drama of facing responsibility,
and unusual and difficult situations." Unquote.
These stories helped the technicians shape their identity,
which helped to increase their participation and contribution
to a community they were building.
Value of narrative.
Research found that workplace narratives helped to,
one, frame and deal with problems,
and two, explain catastrophes, for understanding, explaining,
and arriving at diagnosis.
Three, for teaching and learning new methods.
Four, for dealing with uncertainty.
Five, for changing perspectives on problems.
Six, for warning about failures.
Seven, for providing solutions.
Eight, for expanding the problem space.
Nine, for finding causes to problems.
Ten, for illustrating a point.
Eleven, for challenging a fellow technician.
Twelve, for building confidence as problem solvers.
And thirteen, for anticipating future problems.
Synthesis Questions.
As we finish this module, I would like you to reflect
on how this knowledge and information will affect your design decisions
about writing a powerful group narrative
about a story in your workplace that has educational value when retold.
Can you think of a time when a co-worker told you a story
that en-, that enabled you to a) learn something new,
b) anticipate future problem,
c) warn you about something,
d) help you find a solution to a problem?
Think carefully about these questions,
and share your response in WebKF, as well as in the tutorial
with the teaching assistant and myself.
By articulating your experience, it will greatly aid you in writing
your co-authored group narrative,
specific to a common workplace experience,
and thus setting the stage of the content requirements
of this technology project design.
Thank you.