Nontraditional Approaches: Insights into Issues in Education.

Twenty conference participants shared their experiences regarding how each had become involved in a process where significant learning was taking place. After all the experiences (stories) were told, the group collected the insights they had gained. These 50 morals sounded like platitudes or cliches; they had very little power without their stories. There was no common theme throughout the stories, but four themes did recur with great frequency: (1) Many stories told of a personal struggle. (2) Often they were stories of people putting, or attempting to put, their passion into action. (3) They were stories of risk taking and of a willingness to intentionally face the unknown, the unfamiliar, and the unpredictable. (4) Very often they were stories of people deeply moved by their compassion and energized to act. For these educators, a discussion about education was an exploration of how to learn rather than how to teach. The power of storytelling as a teaching device was revealed as people shared their experiences, and it was obvious that this kind of personal sharing and teaching one another, so valuable as a way of exploring the human experience, can only happen among people who are willing to trust one another. A further lesson learned by the participants was that experiencing theories authenticates what one knows. Experiences make what a person already knows to be true (e.g., the 50 cliche-like morals), known at another level. (JB)