'What's the use of stories that aren't even true?' (Rushdie, 1990): A narrative enquiry into reflective story writing with trainee teachers

This story about stories sets out to examine the value of stories as a means to convey ‘truths’. It seeks to draw out the significance of reflective stories and poetry written by trainee teachers and PGCE tutors in reflective journals. The study examines perceptions of the value of keeping such journals, writing stories which may or may not be perceived as ‘true,’ and how writing in these ways can support and develop reflective practice in teaching. The study uses a narrative inquiry approach (after Clandinin and Connelly, 2000). The researcher is part of the inquiry working closely with participants, seeking to understand how and why we use stories to shape our lived experiences, personally and professionally and exploring what differences the inquiry will make, personally, practically and socially. The metaphor of travel underpins the study, standing both for the experience of the inquiry itself as a journey and in the wider sense of travelling to the worlds of others (Lugones, 1987) through storying. The text is written as a travelogue, enriched by the stories told along the way that allow the reader to participate in the experience of thinking with the stories. The nature of stories and their role in human experience and the questions of truth and fiction are also discussed. Thinking with, rather than about, the stories and poems and thinking together with peers and others revealed themes and highlighted issues, deepening insights into how others experience the world, allowing a deeper analysis of inclusion, exclusion and identity in relation to culture, race, gender and sexuality, and leading to the retelling and reliving of the stories and, in some cases, co-composing stories to live by. In epistemological terms the study contributes new stories and ways of seeing to the growing field of narrative inquiry and ontologically it adds to the existing conversation about why stories matter and what they contribute to our knowledge of the world.