Argues that the classification of life experiences as epiphanies is a task critical to personal growth. Uses narrative analysis to illuminate the factors that seem to influence the choice of events as epiphanies for survivors of sexual abuse. Examines such narratives from the life and work of D.H. Lawrence, as well as modern narratives from…

Uses a scene glimpsed in a university cafeteria (cafeteria workers listening intently to the story another worker is telling them) and a stroll through the campus to reflect on how much professors are storytellers. Finds that the work of teaching is very similar to narrating. (BT)

This study examined age-related changes in narrative speech of 79 adults aged 40-91 who told stories from their pictorial representations. Quantity, information content and cohesion of narratives were analysed using a detailed transcription and codification system. We carried out a LISREL analysis to study relationships between narrative…

In a videotape analysis of five National Issues Forums, I investigate the nature of deliberative talk in small group deliberative settings. I show that deliberative talk in these forums mostly takes the form of storytelling. I argue that storytelling helps participants overcome barriers to deliberation, such as lack of knowledge and the need to…

This article presents an exploratory study of e-mail use for reflective narration. Narration is viewed from three perspectives: the narrating act, the narrative statement, and the story. These perspectives are used to characterize the 69 e-mails that were exchanged between 13 groups of children from three primary schools. The findings show that…

The purpose of this study was to identify potential general outcome indicators (GOIs) of language proficiency. Brief narratives were elicited from 45 kindergarten, first-grade, and third-grade children using single-picture scenes and a standardized protocol. Measures of language productivity, verbal fluency, and grammaticality were examined for…

This collaborative piece written by a philosopher/action researcher and an action researcher/philosopher explores the use of practical philosophy as a tool in action research. The paper explores the connection to be made between what we refer to, roughly, as "theory" and "practice" (while never losing hold of either). The…

A study investigated whether the narrative writing task is more compatible with the structure of conscious thought than are other writing tasks. If so, composing a narrative text should demand less cognitive effort, occur more fluently, and yield a more coherent document than composing persuasive or descriptive texts. Sixteen college students were…

Narrative study of teachers and teaching is seen as sited at the intersection of many current intellectual and professional concerns. These include not only classroom practice and professional careers, but also the Self, Experience, Memory, Identity, Autobiography, Life History, Agency, and Structure. Narrative as genre presents post-modernist…

In recent years some exceptionally optimistic writings by feminist scholars have addressed a shift away from the male manque model of femininity to one celebrating feminine growth. Archetypal myths have inculcated people's minds with the notion that domination and conquest serve to justify men's domination over the feminine. Narrative communicates…

Theories of neuroscience are presented to demonstrate the significance of storytelling and narrative to education by relating brain function to learning. A few key concepts are reviewed to establish a common working vocabulary with regard to neural networks. The tensor network theory and the neurognosis theory are described to provide…

The primary goal of the basic course in speech should be to investigate oral communication rather than public speaking. Fundamental to understanding oral communication is some understanding of the oral mind, that operates when orality is the primary means of expression. Since narrative invites action rather than leisurely analysis, the oral mind…

The study evaluated the ability of six learning disabled adolescents with normal language ability and eight learning disabled adolescents with deficient language skills to appropriately mark ambiguous referents. Subjects were compared with control groups of normally achieving chronologically age matched adolescents and children matched with the…

Noting that little theoretical work has been done on the processes of adapting novels for television viewing, and that what discussion there is tends to concentrate on judgments about "faithfulness" to the original, this paper suggests that more can be gained from approaching television adaptations in a less literal way, and shows how…

Using experimental narratives in which discourse order and event order were not confounded, a study investigated the role of global discourse organization on the comprehension of narrative texts. Subjects, 100 college students, listened to tape recorded passages representing five types of discourse organization: canonical, backward, flashback,…