1. Students engage in auto/biography as a way to learn about social times and historic conditions as the setting for a character's life and story. They become convinced that the historic, geographic, economic, social, and political details are integral parts of the lives they read about. Students learn that the experiences of our lives are always set in particular circumstances.
2. Students come to an understanding of some of the ways in which "history" and the circumstances of our lives are mutually co-constructing. It is both the everydayness of our lives as well as the major national and international events which have an effect on how we live. In turn, it is the events of everyday lives that produce a cumulative history. The narrative method examines how both everyday/close-at-hand experiences and extraordinary/international relations can be found in the "stories lives tell" (Witherell & Noddings, 1991).
3. Students observe how memory and experience can be interrogated for the particular life that the telling has constructed. For example, they looked at which stereotypes are reinforced and which ones are challenged by the particular version of events. How does each story fit with a dominant telling of history? How is it outside of it?

In the following discussion we describe possibilities for narrative inquiry within two separate social studies curriculum courses at the pre-service level. In the first case, a narrative inquiry symposium was a component within a required curriculum course at the secondary level. Using a symposium format, teacher education students in this course explored various narratives as entry points into the construction of social, political and historical events. In the second case, we describe a book club format employed in an elective course titled, "Narrative and Social Studies Curriculum." Elementary, middle years, and secondary teacher education students were enrolled in this second course. In choosing titles to be used in the course (see Appendix), we took the opportunity to develop a consistent theme as a way to invite comparisons and to promote a deeper understanding of a particular issue. The titles we chose generally emphasized the view from the margins of cultural, racial, economic and gendered experiences. Choosing stories "from the margins" was a deliberate attempt to include stories and voices not typically found within mainstream textbooks and traditional curricular materials for the teaching of social studies. Including these voices helps to broaden the notion of what can be included as history and who the people are that can do the telling. We drew the marginalized nature of these titles to students' attention to invite them to think critically about authorial voice and to interrupt their notions of a canonical social studies literature.

No teaching approach is ever neutral. We believe that taking a narrative approach has the potential to extend the boundaries of social studies curriculum and to raise questions about the nature of social studies teaching.

Social Studies Curriculum and Instruction: A Symposium

The intention of this first approach was not necessarily to model teaching activities for use in schools, but to strengthen pre-service teachers' knowledge of their subject area and to encourage critical thinking about where knowledge can be found. Students enlarged their understanding of how areas of knowledge such as history, geography, politics, sociology, economics, and so forth, can be accessed through reading the stories of people's lives. The narrative investigation constituted approximately 15% of class time in one semester of students' pre-service social studies program.

Our investigation began with each student choosing either an autobiography, biography or memoir from a list of mainly Canadian titles. Students purchased or borrowed their books and read them by the assigned date, each student reading a different book.

On the assigned date, in keeping with the narrative entrance into the world of others, we conducted the class as if we were delegates at a large symposium. Suddenly, our ordinary university classroom became the convention hall of a fine hotel. Wearing name tags representing the authors whose lives they had just read about, students prepared themselves to role play their characters and personages for the length of the symposium. Introductions were conducted in character, and for the first two hours, students provided a synopsis of "their" lives and told something about how the circumstances of historic, economic or geographic settings had affected their life stories. Because students so effectively took on the details of their characters, there were many cross-identities: across gender, nationality, language, time, race, sexual orientation. Thus, a white male student was able to say with utmost seriousness, "When I divorced my husband, I returned to China where we were from".

We kept track of the time frame in which each narrative was set by making a time line on the board. After listening to each other, students readily saw many common themes and points of connection between characters. A quick brainstorming yielded themes such as social identity, hidden past, memory, families, immigration. From a larger list of 15 to 20 themes, students each chose 3 or 4 that they wanted to pursue. Because all titles contained multiple themes (see themed lists in figure 1 below), students each attended three or four different group discussions of their books. The professor and students generated questions as students became increasingly interested in the overlaps and points of divergence with their own characters. Where possible, they stayed in character which helped them empathize with the lives they had come to know.

On the theme of Women's Lives, students were surprised to learn of the enduring issues with which women from past and present had to contend. They became aware of the mediating effects of class privilege, but also of the many similarities across time, ethnicity and place. Not surprisingly, students were unprepared for the experiences described in the theme of War and Imprisonment. In descriptions of Childhood and Oppression, students reflected on the circumstances of their own lives and became aware of the influence they, as teachers, might have on their future students. This knowledge was especially significant when these pre-service teachers thought about themselves as teachers of students who were unlike them in class and race privilege. The theme of Immigration captured all readers' attention when they considered its significance in shaping one's life experiences. Students gained a better perspective of the effects of immigration for their own, mostly white, families as well as for racial minorities in Canada. The theme of Memory illustrated that the telling of a history is always partial and always interested. Students learned that history and memoir are not always the same thing and that both have a part to play in social studies education.

Finally, students participated in panel discussions and reported on the following questions for the books they read.

• How can these life accounts be trusted to reflect the events of the day? What is the connection between peoples' lives and the stories that are told about them? The use of narratives illustrates that people care about what is up close and personal. Students respond readily when the author is not distant but rather begins with the personal and expands to the general events of the day. Personal events are always produced in social, cultural, historic, economic circumstances that should serve as the beginning of critical inquiry, not its conclusion. "Higher order" thinking skills are necessary, especially when narratives differ from privileged, official accounts.
• What knowledge does a particular book's point of view challenge or confirm? Personal accounts illustrate that telling of history is not an objective truth; neither is it merely knowledge transmission. The greater transparency provided by personal accounts illustrates that writing always comes from a point of view, encouraging students to engage with the text and to think critically about what is said and how it is assembled. As Denise Chong says:
  

  Once my research was done, the challenge was to press it flat onto the pages of a book.…There are as many different versions of events as there are members of a family. The truth becomes a landscape of many layers in an ever-changing light; the details depend on whose memories illuminate it.…Of course, in the very act of writing a book, I myself bring another shading of truth. (Denis Chong, 1996, p. xi)

• What is not said about a particular group? How do these silences make possible and/or impossible different ways of thinking about various groups and their experiences in Canada? Fictionalized histories illustrate that historical events such as wars have had a significant impact on the lives of "ordinary" people. At the same time, these people are active agents in the creation of history as seen in the stories of peoples' immigration to Canada. The production of grand themes from ordinary lives is the basis for our talking about and grouping together certain books under common themes. Although the book list included the stories of often marginalized people, students appreciated that the list was only partial as it silently gestured to the stories that remained unsaid.
• What or who is served by telling the story in this way? Do the traditional narratives get disrupted by hearing about the lives of ordinary people? The narratives read by the students stand as one version of the competing narratives of the past. The strength of narratives in social studies is not merely about the definitive telling of a certain people's experiences but about exploring the authorial, social and cultural ground in which the experience is set. We examined the narratives for illustrations of how official histories are told. What decisions are made about what comes first? What gets left out? Whose history counts as worth telling? Students saw many examples of the ways in which novels and biographies of historic periods disrupt traditional tellings.

To close the symposium, students discussed whether what they had been involved in was social studies education even though there were many overlaps with English/Language Arts. They concluded that the closeness to Language Arts teaching doesn't mean it isn't social studies. The identification of common themes that support the students in the understanding and teaching of concepts is one of the strong points of this approach; at the same time, content is not neglected as students read first hand accounts of historical events and times.

Throughout the narrative projects, students made connections between the narratives and the world in which they are living. It seemed uncanny how students chose books that were closely allied to their own family histories or interests without at first knowing anything about the books. Many students said the books had provided them with insights into their personal lives. Most recommended their books to others.

Narrative and Social Studies Curriculum: A Book Club

This second curriculum course also encouraged teacher education students to consider historical fiction, biography and memoir as valid locations of social studies knowledge, and in this course, we considered how we might access that narrative knowledge in our future classrooms. To begin, we looked at teaching social studies (or any subject area) as an act of telling stories about our world. We considered the role of stories in social studies education and examined the many layers of stories that are present. We noted some of the grand narratives and themes that are typically told about events, places, and people through the teaching of social studies (e.g.: victory, progress, good vs. evil, binary opposites, linear progression).

In our examination of the role of narrative in teaching social studies, we considered stories that have been written in popular culture as possible texts for teaching social studies. A large portion of our class time required students to work together in book clubs and to read selections of autobiography, memoir, and historical fiction at the young adult and adult level. The teacher education students then considered the implications of these selections for social studies teaching and learning.

Working together in book clubs, the students chose the books they would read for the term from a list of selections (see Figure 2). For ease of accessibility and to allay student costs, our social studies subject area purchased several copies of each selection from a local bookstore and passed the volume purchase savings on to the students. Our students had the option of purchasing or borrowing; the majority of students purchased copies of the selections they read. As the students worked together in their book clubs, they collected "book club notes" for each selection. Teacher education is a funny beast, and often requires us to play several roles at once. The teacher education students read the books in their roles as adults, all the while imagining the suitability and level of enjoyment of these books for young adults (their future students). At the same time, they read the selections in their roles as teachers, and considered the pedagogical aspects of using these selections in order to further develop various social studies concepts, and they considered where these selections might fit into units of study within the required Saskatchewan curriculum.

Sample questions we considered in the light of narrative and curriculum were: How can stories be used to develop social studies concepts? Which types of stories are the most instructive? Could we teach social studies through a book club format? Can reading adult fiction, autobiographies and memoirs make us better social studies teachers?

We did indeed find that all of the selections would be useful in developing social studies concepts. And, as the students worked together, they came to the general consensus that while they would not teach an entire year of social studies through book clubs, it would be useful to have students (Grades 3-12) work in book clubs throughout the school year. Students working in book clubs would be able to choose from a list of required readings, and follow a pre-determined format for each selection, so that as teachers, we could be sure our students were picking up on the "social studies" parts of the stories.

In reading both the young adult and adult fiction, the teacher education students noted that they learned things about events and people, and in several cases, their interest was really sparked through these stories. The students realized that by reading these types of narratives, it was a way for them to gain content knowledge about people, places, and events, and their level of confidence was raised, regarding teaching social studies.

Book Club Note Components
Together, we produced a list of categories we believed it would be useful to compile notes around for each selection. Teachers could then draw from these notes as their students worked in book clubs. The following categories were components we included in our book club notes:

Brief Summary of Story and Background Context
These notes highlighted the historical and geographical context for the story. For example, for the selection There Will be Wolves (Bradford, 1994), the background context notes included information about the Christian crusades and historical maps of crusade routes along with present day maps of the same regions.

Companion Readings
This was an annotated list of readings that would be useful for students or teachers to read in conjunction with the book club selection-factual readings to help contextualize the story (information from encyclopedias, other non-fiction sources, newspapers, etc.), fictional readings, and poetry selections.

Passage Selections
Passages were selected that would spark interest, illustrate the theme of the book, and help to develop particular social studies concepts.

Points to Consider
Book club members kept track of issues in the story that would be worth a second look, for example, political conflict, racism, gender bias, ageism, struggles for independence, and human rights. In the case of young adult books, they also considered what can be learned from a child's perspective.

Curricular Connections
Student teachers highlighted themes of the book which connected with curricular requirements. For example, the Grade Eleven Saskatchewan History curriculum contains a unit titled, "Self Determination and the Superpowers" and aspects of this unit might be developed by sharing passages from Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible (1998). Links to Language Arts or other subject areas were also noted.

Suggested Book Club Formats for Students to Follow
The teacher education students made suggestions as to possible formats to implement in their classrooms with each selection. Several useful ideas came from Harvey Daniels' Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in the Student-Centered Classroom.

Possible Ideas/Formats for Interpretation
Each selection was explored for possibilities in terms of what elementary or secondary students might attempt in response to reading the selection by way of role play, writing, visual expression, dance, etc.

An Answer…

We conclude with Witherell and Noddings' (1991) description of the benefits of using a narrative approach in education:

We learned that the use of both symposiums and book clubs offers possibilities for including narrative, auto/biography and fiction in social studies teacher education programs. The appeal of these narratives to all ages of students and their teachers, and the issues and concepts highlighted in the stories led us to believe that social studies was indeed being taught and that through a narrative approach, social studies is the engaging topic we had always suspected.

Appendix

Badami, Anita Rau. 1996. Tamarind Mem. Toronto: Penguin Books Canada Ltd.

---. 2000. The Hero's Walk: a Novel. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf Canada.

Barlow, Maude, and Bruce Campbell. 1995. Straight through the Heart: How Liberals Abandoned the Just Society. Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers.

Bradford, K. 1992. There Will Be Wolves. Toronto: Harper Collins Publishers.

Campbell, M. 1982. Halfbreed. Omaha, NB: University of Nebraska Press.

Chong, Denise. 1996. The Concubines's Children: Portrait of a Family Divided. Toronto: Penguin Books.

---. 1999. The Kim Phuc Story: The Girl in the Picture. Toronto: Penguin Books.

Choy, Wayson. 1999. Paper Shadows: A Chinatown Childhood. Toronto: Penguin Books.

Conway, Jill K. 1994. True North: A Memoir. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

---. 1989. The Road from Coorain. New York: Alfred A. Knopf: Distributed by Random House

Dillard, A. 1992. The Living. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

Doucet, Clive. 1999. Notes from Exile: on Being Acadian. Toronto: M&S.

Eksteins, Modris. 1999. Walking Since Daybreak: a Story of Eastern Europe, World War II, and the Heart of our Century. Toronto: Key Porter Books Limited.

Enchi, F. 1971. The Waiting Years. Tokyo: Kodansha International.

Fitzpatrick, D. 1998. Bay Girl. Regina: Coteau Books.

Franklin, Miles. 1984. My Brilliant Career. Kensington: Times House.

Freeman, Victoria. 2000. Distant Relations: How My Ancestors Colonized North America. Toronto: M&S.

Gandhi, M. 1957. Gandhi: an Autobiography. Boston: Beacon Press.

Gilmour, D. 1999. The Desire of every Living Thing. Toronto: Random House.

Gray, Charlotte. 1999. Sisters of the Wilderness: the Lives of Susanna Moodie and Catherine Parr Traill. Toronto: Penguin Books.

Harelkin Bishop, M. 2000. Tunnels of Time. Regina: Coteau Books.

Herriot, Trevor. c2000. River in a Dry Land: Prairie Passage. Toronto: Stoddart.

Hesse, K. 1997. Out of the Dust. New York: Scholastic.

Hillen, E. 1993. The Way of a Boy. Toronto: Penguin Books.

Keefer, Janice Kulyk. 1998. Honey and Ashes: a Story of Family. Toronto: HarperCollins.

Kingsolver, B. 1998. The Poisonwood Bible. New York: HarperCollins.

Laurence, Margaret. 1989. Dance on the Earth: a Memoir. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.

Lobel, A. 1998. No Pretty Pictures. New York: Avon Books.

Lowry, L. 1993. The Giver. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books.

Mandela, Nelson. c1965. No Easy Walk to Freedom: Articles, Speeches, and Trial Addresses of Nelson Mandela. New York: Basic Books.

McCourt, Frank. 1996. Angela's Ashes: a Memoir. New York: Scribner.

---. 1999. 'Tis: A Memoir. New York: Scribner.

Menchu, Rigoberta. c1984. I, Rigoberta Menchu: an Indian Woman in Guatemala. London: Verso.

Michaels, A. 1997. Fugitive Pieces. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf Canada.

Mistry, R. 1992. Such a Long Journey. Toronto: Vintage Books.

Paris, Erna. 2000. Long Shadows: Truth, Lies and History. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf Canada.

Scofield, Gregory. 1999. Thunder through my Veins: Memories of a Métis Childhood. Toronto: HarperFlamingo Canada.

Siggins, Maggie. 1991. Revenge of the Land: a Century of Greed, Tragedy, and Murder on a Saskatchewan Farm. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.

Sterling, S. 1992. My Name is Seepeetza. Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre Limited.

Tan, Amy. 1989. Joy Luck Club. New York: Putnam's.

---. 1991. The Kitchen God's Wife. New York: Putnam's and Sons.

Tomlinson, T. 1993. The Forestwife. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books.

Wallin, P. 1998. Since You Asked. Toronto: Random House.

Reference List

Daniels, H. 1994. Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in the Student-Centred Classroom. Markham, ON: Pembroke Publishers.

Saskatchewan Education Training and Employment, 1994. History 20: World

Issues: a Curriculum Guide. Regina: Saskatchewan Education Training and Employment.

Swift, G. 1983. Waterland. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.

Witherell, C. & Noddings, N. eds. 1991. Stories Lives Tell: Narrative and Dialogue in Education. New York: Teachers College Press.

Dr. Carol Schick (Assistant Professor of Foundations) and Dr. Wanda Hurren (Associate Professor of Social Studies Curriculum) are from the university of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan