Annotated Bibliography of Resources for Educational Reform, Coherent Teaching Practice, and Improved Student Learning

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• Cortazzi, M. (1993). Narrative analysis. London: Falmer Press.

Cortazzi proposes that narrative methods of research can allow researchers to develop descriptions of teachers' culture which preserve their voices. This can help those on the outside of classrooms better understand what happens in classrooms, and this is increasingly thought to be important if current reform efforts are to succeed. Cortazzi says, "We need to know how teachers themselves see their situation, what their experience is like, what they believe, and how they think." He reviews recent research literature on the role of reflection in teacher development; the changing perspectives on teachers' knowledge; the recent concern about preserving teachers' voices; the importance of autobiography and biography; the collaboration between researcher and teachers in narrative inquiry; and the use of teachers' curriculum stories and teachers' anecdotes about children. In all of these areas, narratives are used as data and as a reporting style. In the chapters of this book, Cortazzi discusses each model of narrative analysisÑsociological and sociolinguistic models, psychological models, literary models, and anthropological modelsÑand then shows the application of narrative analysis to a study of primary teachers in Britain.

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