The Future of Education

As part of the initiatives linked to the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan), Ministerial Decree 66/2023 represented a fundamental milestone for schools in promoting a system of continuous training for Italian teachers, with the aim of consolidating professional, pedagogical and digital skills with a view to innovative and reflective teaching. In this context, the need to narrate experiences from different points of view represents one of the possibilities for conveying the complexity of adult learning and professional training for teachers. Personal and professional narratives of training seen through the eyes of the trainer emerge as a methodological tool for promoting transformative learning and professional identity among teachers. The approach proposed in this contribution is based on Narrative Inquiry and narrative guidance practices, which develop an interconnected framework between storytelling, guidance and the development of educational practices. The process of reflection and support that uses stories and narratives to promote the construction of meaning and skills in training contexts has a positive impact on equity and professional motivation among teachers and trainers alike. The proposed experience describes an attempt to share structured narratives (logbooks, memes, critical reflections) analysed according to an integrated narrative model, inspired by Narrative Inquiry as a research methodology to generate critical reflection, with a view to Lifelong Learning. Documenting the construction and design of training courses has supported a comparison between teacher trainers, highlighting how the systematic use of narratives allowed the training experience to be used as continuous professional development for the trainers themselves, in a critical self-assessment key. Narratives become professional artefacts to stimulate discussion in original communities of practice and facilitate the transfer of meaning between theoretical training and everyday teaching practice. The contribution is in dialogue with studies on teacher training that

support the centrality of reflection on one's professional actions and self-narration as levers for promoting lifelong learning in every context and teaching professionalism in schools.

 

Keywords: Narrative Inquiry, Lifelong Learning, Teacher Training