Dialogic knowledge building
The making of a narrative inquiry teacher education discourse community
In this chapter we examine conceptually how we have formed an online
narrative inquiry teacher education discourse community over the last
year and a half with emphasis on: (1) the beginning process of developing
and inviting an online community; (2) the trials and tribulations of
building an online community, and; (3) the dialogue process and the
obstacles of dialogic interaction online. We focus our attention on building
a safe community and use Schwier’s (2002) framework and elements
of community building for online collaboration and dialogue. In doing
so, we draw on our methodological work in narrative inquiry as well
as other scholars’ work in creating communities (Campbell, Schwier, &
Kenny 2005; Connelly 2011; Craig 2011). We further use the ‘combined
communal interplay’ of dialogue (Weigand 2010), and how to begin
such a process online, to define the process, dilemmas, and complexities
that we work through and conceptualize in this chapter.