Narrative ways of knowing: Using portfolios to illuminate teacher learning from a knowledge community perspective

This narrative inquiry examines how teachers in the School Portfolio Group learn in a knowledge community alongside one another. Craig (1995, 2007b) describes qualities of a knowledge community that include resonance among teachers' experiences, ongoing reflection, the development of shared ways of knowing, and the bringing of moral horizons into view. Teacher stories create a story constellation (Craig, 2003b, 2007b) as interactions among them are brought to the forefront.;The unique interactions among teachers from elementary, middle, and high schools from two different school districts created learning opportunities that had not previously existed. Craig uses a "story constellation" approach (2003b) to show how teacher stories, stories of teachers, school stories, and stories of school intermingle, sometimes in a resonant way, and sometimes in a conflicting way. Data for this inquiry were collected using a variety of tools, including individual and shared "traveling journals," professional presentations, individual and school portfolios, and publications. Through these artifacts, teachers revealed different encounters they faced when their narrative ways of knowing bumped into the boundaries of the grand narrative of education (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). Five of those stories are used in this narrative inquiry to form a story constellation of counterstories that illuminates the teachers' individual and collective experiences. By developing counterstories (Nelson, 2001), the teachers were able to eschew their roles in the conduit of curriculum (Clandinin & Connelly, 1992) and embrace their roles as curriculum makers (Craig & Ross, 2008).;Teachers forming the School Portfolio Group originally came from six campuses in two school districts in a large southwestern city. The teachers themselves brought a wide variety of experiences to the group, both from their lives prior to entering the field of education and from their specific school contexts. The School Portfolio Group has been working and learning together for over 10 years, and the membership of the group has changed over time. Members of the group use a "core and satellite" member metaphor (Kelley, Gray, Reid, & Craig, in press) to make sense of the shifting membership and level of involvement of the group.