voices

contesting the notion of ‘voice’ in teacher narratives

Barbara Kamler (2001), in her recent book, Relocating the personal, is advocating the use of narratives in teachers’ on-going professional learning. She, too, argues the need to situate any narrative within its cultural and socio-political context. But she is suspicious of the use of the term ‘voice’ with respect to teacher narratives (including those which might be constructed for and within this website). She believes that it is not only simplifying and romanticizing the act of writing, but that it can thwart the very emancipatory intention behind teachers writing narratives.

She draws on the argument of Pam Gilbert to problematise the notion of voice in narrative

Metaphors of speech, because they imply delivery by a human voice, act discursively to naturalise personal writing as more authentic ‘personal, individual, spontaneous, natural, truthful, involved, emotional, real’ (Gilbert, 1990, pp. 60-61). Metaphors of story … can be used to disrupt the links between the personal and the authentic
(Kamler, 2001, Relocating the personal, p. 45).

She goes on to argue that the focus should be a critical one, but honing in on the story or narrative as text, rather than the ‘voice in the text’:

Metaphorically, story allows a more textual orientation than voice, a close attention to what is written (rather than who has written)—to the actual text—and the contexts in which it is produced. … [A] critical lens to the production and enactment of texts and suggests a whole new set of educational practices. These include a greater self-consciousness about how narratives area told, how they are made, how they might be written differently, how they support, undermine and struggle with other stories, how their writing affects the teller and the told
(Kamler, 2001, Relocating the personal, p. 45).

Are there other metaphors for ‘voice,’ such as might be emerging in your own teacher narrative, that you find meaningful or interesting?



	If standards could be used to promote genuine professional development, improve knowledge of teaching practice and raise the professional standing of teachers, I welcome them. If all teachers could be involved in the kind of collaborative, productive development of literacy teaching standards we were involved in with STELLA – fantastic. Robyn Perkins 2000