Narrative writing: reflective enquiry into professional practice

• Published in: Educational action research 2006-06, Vol.14 (2), p.203-218
• Main Author: Bolton, Gillie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Action Research; Continuing and Initial Medical Education; Creative writing; Ethics; Expressive and Explorative Writing; Expressive Language; Narrative; Poetry; Professional Development; Professional wellbeing; Reflective Practice; Reflective Teaching; Reflexivity; Storytelling; Writing Instruction
• ISSN: 0965-0792; 1747-5074
• DOI: 10.1080/09650790600718076

An effective mode of reflective practice and reflexivity is through personal professional narrative and story exploration. All professional and personal experience is naturally storied; telling or writing stories are prime human ways of understanding, communicating and remembering. Narratives of vital or key areas of professional experience can be communicated and explored directly and simply through expressive writing. These might be expressed fictionally; each story stands metonymically for that clinician's practice. Uncritically accepted metaphors, with deep impact upon practice and experience, can also be noticed and evaluated. This article offers a richly exemplified argument for how confidential, carefully facilitated groups of professionals can be supported critically, yet gently examining their own and others' practice, through written narrative and poetry. Implicit ethics and values can be perceived and enquired into, and professional identity and boundaries unthreateningly questioned and even challenged. Practitioners can gain greater observational powers and sense of authority over their work, and more of a grasp of its inherently complex political, social and cultural impact.