Reflections and Reminisces of an Early Years Educator - Essay Example

The term narrative has numerous meanings and is used by different disciplines in various ways, usually as a synonym for a story, in which I as a narrative scholar will pay analytic attention to the manner in which the facts are assembled in this way (Craig, 2011: p33). In collecting and telling these stories, I will be gathering knowledge from past experiences but not necessarily about the past. Therefore, making narratives from the retired early years’ teacher lived history will be a process through which I retroactively revise the past, where I am engaged in the process of describing and languaging in order to modify the past.

Indeed, I agree with Norton and Early (2011: p426) when they say that what may be seen as true in the present may have been untrue when the actions one is describing were actually performed. As a result, using NABE will allow me to resist the urge to attribute meanings and intentions to events, which may have not been the intended meaning at the time the retired teacher experienced them. Yet, understanding and attaching meaning to the teacher’s events is often done retrospectively, while the teacher’s memory may be selective and play tricks on the outcomes of her reflection.

This selective reminiscing and reflection lurks in the background and may catch me out in conducting my research, specifically because, as Moss and Hay (2012: p113) rightly states, reflections are far from uniquely biographical and are only grounded in what the respondent can tell and how they remember what they tell. Indeed, I remember that as a young child, I was always telling and writing tales and stories. Although I can barely remember what these stories contained, my teacher would often take the stories home and read them to her husband.

As a result, the meaning that was attached to this period of my life by my family and became part of their narrative was that I was ever writing creative stories as a young child.