The circle game

ACE (Active, Collaborative Education), a post-graduate teacher education programme (pre-school -12 and special education), is based on the Aristotelian understanding of ‘Phronesis’, that sees teaching as a profession based on practical knowledge and ways of being that are context related and learnt through practice and the study of practice, rather than a profession based on ‘implementing theory’. Thus the everyday situations of being in schools with children grow to be the major texts which are written and interpreted. In this context the narrative inquiry approach has become a way of life in the programme, serving as a framework that invites both students and teacher educators to purposefully bring their stories, personal and professional, into the different learning communities and construct personal and shared wisdom of practice. However, like the teaching profession itself, we claim that narrative inquiry is an artful skill, a practical wisdom. Although it can be taught theoretically, it cannot be learned without being engaged in it in practice. In this chapter we tell three stories related to circles of narrative inquiry as a way of life in ACE.