Centre for Narratives and Transformative Learning

Centres

Centre for Narratives and Transformative Learning (CeNTraL)

Research within this centre has become an international focus for the generation of new work within narrative inquiry and transformative learning. This centre contributes to critical research on transformative dimensions of learning, plays a vital role in the development of criteria, ethical guidelines and standards of scholarship that blur the boundaries between arts and social science and also operates as a site for the development and dissemination of innovative and creative research methodologies.

Our research agendas draw on ideas from socio-cultural, post-structural, critical and literary theories and use both social science and arts-based methodologies in order to support work on written, spoken, visual and multi-modal narratives and to develop our understanding of transformative learning as a relational and social process.

This research is interdisciplinary in nature and takes place within many settings including both private and public spaces, informal and formal learning environments, therapeutic contexts and a variety of professional domains. The work of the centre focuses on the complex interrelationships between:

CeNTraL’s principal activities span three strands:

  1. The development of new qualitative research methodologies, and concomitant forms of ethical know-how, that provide better insights into interpersonally sensitive and culturally complex issues
  2. Engagement with the critical extension of psycho-social and relational dimensions of transformative learning and narrative approaches to research and practice.
  3. A commitment to inclusive research dissemination and capacity-building amongst users, practitioners, professional organisations and policy-makers as well as research students and scholarly audiences. This extends from systematically reviewing evidence for educational policy and practice through partnerships with service user, practitioner and professional groups  to ongoing work generating arts-based educational inquiry methods .

The hub of CeNTraL’s capacity-building is its international seminar and workshop series (see current forthcoming and past events for more information).

To join the CeNTraL mailing list please e-mail Jane.speedy@bristol.ac.uk.

Our research is directly linked to our teaching and learning programmes, including the BSc in deaf studies, Postgraduate Certificate in Education, MSc Counselling, MEd Counselling in Education and EdD (Doctor of Education) strand in Narrative Inquiry and PhD programmes.

New people

This term we have welcomed many new research students, including Aghelos Pyrgos on an ESRC scholarship and Goya Wilson on a University of Bristol International scholarship. We welcome back several of our alumni who are now joining us as associates, including Christine Bell, Ying-Lin Hung and Briege Casey. We also have three new staff, Rachel Sutton Spence, who is joining us from SACHS, alongside two new research fellows, Donna West and Michiko Kaneko. Rachel and Donna have been associate members of CeNTraL for some time and we are delighted that they are joining us here in GSoE.

New research grants for CeNTraL members:

We are starting the new year with three new research projects getting underway:

An exploratory faculty award on cities, universities and everyday lives

A follow up to learning futures: learning futures II

And, joining us midway, Rachel Sutton Spence project on metaphor in sign language

New Publications