Abstract:
Choosing DRAWing as an approach to retell teachers’ stories challenges expected academic writing styles. Together with a post-qualitative storying approach that challenges contemporary qualitative research methodologies (Phillips & Bunda, 2018; St Pierre, 2017), DRAWing offers an opportunity to retell stories of lived experiences and gain a richer insight into teachers’ lives without dehumanising who they are or what they have experienced.A post-qualitative storying approach opens up the space to hear, explore and share the uncensored and unbound stories of teachers’ lived experiences. Their stories are rich, deep, complex, and confronting, disrupting our understandings and expectations of teachers’ lives. We enter a world in which events challenge teachers’ decisions to continue, their professional identity, their values and beliefs, and what is important to them. In turn, we gain a deeper insight and understanding of what takes place in schools, how teachers respond and rationalise their experiences, and the professional and personal impacts of these experiences.In this presentation, I share excerpts of some of the shared stories that disrupt and challenge our understanding of what teachers experience and invite you to reflect on your own experiences and expectations. In hearing and reading teachers’ stories, we are challenged to take a closer look at what we have experienced, our role and relationships, and to consider more deeply the impact of our decisions and actions on those we interact with daily.ReferencesPhillips, L. G., & Bunda, T. (2018). Research through, with and as storying. Routledge.St Pierre, E. A. (2017). Post qualitative research: The critique and the coming after. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage handbook of qualitative research (Fifth edition ed.). SAGE.