The Role of Narrative in Student Engagement

Abstract

Since I began teaching a course titled Writing in the Community, I have been fascinated with how narratives deepen students’ service-learning experiences. In their article “Narrative Learning in Adulthood,” M. Carolyn Clark and Marsha Rossiter say that stories “draw us into an experience at more than a cognitive level; they engage our spirit, our imagination, our heart, and this engagement is complex and holistic.” Narratives give broader context to students’ service, foster critical consciousness, help students believe they can make a contribution in their own communities, and contribute to making service-learning a transformative experience, all outcomes that remind us of the importance of the humanities in forming active citizens.

Journal
Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric
Published
2017-04-01
DOI
10.59236/rjv17i1pp96-112
CompPile
Open Access
OA PDF Gold
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (25)

  1. How undergraduates are affected by service participation
    Journal of College Student Development
  2. Creating the new American college
    Chronicle Of Higher Education
  3. The autobiography of Martin Luther King
  4. On liberty, reading and dissent. The Reading Agency Lecture
  5. Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research
Show all 25 →
  1. Narrative learning in adulthood. New directions for adult and continuing education
    Fall
  2. The private, the public, and the published: Reconciling private lives and public rhetoric
  3. The long loneliness
  4. Baktinian Buzz about teacher talk: Discourse matter in what difference does difference make?
    English Education  
  5. Nickel and dimed
  6. The essential Gandhi
  7. The humanities and citizenship: A challenge for service-learning
    Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning. Fall
  8. Service learning in higher education: Concepts and practices
  9. Poverty and Postsecondary Students in College Towns
  10. Restorying our lives: Personal growth through autobiographical reflection
  11. Mountains beyond mountains
    Random House
  12. Traditional vs. critical service-learning: Engaging the literature to differentiate two models
    Michigan Service Learning Journal
  13. Community Service: Panacea, Paradox, or Potentiation
    Journal of Student Development
  14. Narratives in teaching and research for justice and human rights
    Education, Citizenship and Social Justice
  15. Dead man walking
  16. Restorying a life: Adult education and transformative learning
  17. Developing a critical pedagogy of service learning
  18. Beyond empathy: Developing critical consciousness through service learning
  19. Motorcycle Diaries. Focus Features
  20. Impact of service-learning and social justice education on college students' cognitive de…
    NASPA Journal