In the field of education, 1968, Jackson first studied the field activities of the school by narrative method. Later, Connery and others began to focus educational narrative on the study of teachers' knowledge. They believe that human experience is constructed in a narrative way and coexists in a story way, and the best way to reveal the meaning of individual experience is narrative.

Narrative research rose in China in the late 1990s, initiated by Professor Ding Gang of East China Normal University. Later, as a way of educational research, narrative research attracted the attention of domestic scholars and teachers, and the voices of approval and evaluation continued, and they also joined the ranks of this research.

First, the definition of the concept of educational narrative research

Educational narrative is a teacher's statement of what has happened or is happening in classroom teaching, daily life and teaching reform practice, and it also includes various texts such as personal biography and personal experience summary written by the teacher himself, through which the teacher's experience world is presented to people.

Educational narrative research refers to the educational research conducted by researchers (mainly teachers) in a narrative way. By thinking about the educational thoughts, theories and beliefs behind meaningful campus life, events, experiences and behaviors, researchers can discover the essence, laws and values of education.

Second, the characteristics of educational narrative research

Educational narrative research has the characteristics of authenticity, education, situation and practicality.

1. Reality

Educational narrative text is not fiction, but the educational matters it studies are documentary, which is the material directly collected by the narrator or researcher "on the spot", not imaginary fiction. It is a true story in the teaching process recorded by teachers or researchers through diaries, biographies and work summaries.

2. Educational

Educational narrative research has ethical and educational significance, that is, narrators and researchers have obvious value judgments, likes and dislikes and emotional tendencies, so it has distinct educational significance. The authenticity of educational narrative research shows us an intuitive documentary research method, and its educational significance has more important value in educational work.

3. Formed by the environment

Educational narrative research must be carried out in the natural situation and the real teaching process. Researchers themselves are research tools, and researchers need long-term observation in the teaching process. Situational observation in reality not only reflects the authenticity of educational narrative research, but also reflects the unrepeatable nature of this research method.

practical

Educational narrative research is not only about telling stories and writing stories, but also about "retelling and rewriting the stories of teachers and students that can arouse awakening and change, thus causing changes in teachers' practice", thus achieving a leap from theory to practice.

The significance of this research is that it can be applied to practice. Educational narrative research can reflect its value in educational practice, cause the reform of teaching work to a certain extent, further improve the teaching quality and level, and provide better learning environment and learning resources for students.

Third, the problems in educational narrative research

First of all, the scientific and normative nature of educational narrative research itself is questioned. As far as China's educational research is concerned, there is a lack of rational analysis methods that are objective, rigorous and clear in logic, as in important western classics, instead of this pre-modern narrative. In our country, it is urgent to strengthen the scientific research of education, instead of vigorously advocating the anti-rationalism view of educational research.

In research, it is often easy to pay attention to one and ignore the others. It should be said that overemphasizing the pursuit of universal laws in educational research to guide educational practice is easy to ignore the role of individual knowledge and experience, thus falling into the universalism of methodology. This kind of research is too subjective and scientific. Successful research should be based on science. Therefore, it is imperative to strengthen the scientific and normative nature of educational research.

Secondly, some scholars believe that educational narrative research lacks reliability and validity, can not be repeatedly verified, and lacks universal promotion and explanatory power. In a study, reliability and validity are very important indicators to test the success of the study. At present, educational narrative research tends to pay more attention to the individuality of the research object, the depth of the research level and the particularity of the research conclusion.

Educational narrative research focuses on the uniqueness of "individual", so it is difficult to raise the significance revealed by this individual uniqueness to a universal theory. From this point of view, educational narrative research has the significance of revealing the uniqueness of phenomena, and it does lack universal explanatory power.

Finally, many teachers have failed to master the research methods of educational narrative. At present, teachers mostly study with some simple educational diaries and narratives, only staying at the level of "educational narrative" and far from reaching the level of "educational narrative research". The main reason is that teachers have a wrong understanding that educational narrative research does not need certain theoretical support.

The idea of neglecting theory in postmodern educational narrative research tends to think that middle school pedagogy is useless in the current education and teaching practice. In fact, any educational research is carried out from the perspective of pedagogy, so it is very important to accumulate rich theoretical knowledge of pedagogy, otherwise it is difficult to do educational research well.

Fourth, the new progress of educational narrative research

With the maturity of relevant theories of educational narrative research, educational narrative research has been applied to educational research more and more, and its practicability has been enhanced on the basis of rich theories.

At present, the narrative research of primary and secondary education in China is more popular, while the narrative research of university education needs further development. Under the discourse of educational narrative research, college English teaching has become a process of combining theory with practice. College English teachers and students have become narrative subjects, and the narrative subjects' reflective consciousness and research consciousness have been awakened. The two narrative subjects talk on an equal footing and promote each other to achieve better teaching results.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) conclusion

Educational narrative research is being understood by more and more researchers and recognized by more and more school teachers. A simple and novel way can arouse more and more thinking of researchers and constant reflection of educators.

The new development of educational narrative research has injected more fresh blood into the research work by recording and narrating the teaching stories that happened around us and vivid practical examples, which has promoted the further development of educational narrative research.