Storytelling Retreat at the Center for Teaching Quality

This past summer the Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ) facilitated a retreat for teachers from across the country to learn about telling their professional teacher leader stories.

At the retreat, the teachers worked to “…develop and share their stories of teacher leadership impact in the hopes of shifting the current cultural narrative surrounding teaching and learning” (para. 1). This statement explains what they did and why they did it; the statement also shows us some of the assumptions made by and motivations for the retreat.

First, the description tells us something they did: the retreat taught teachers how to develop their stories of teacher leadership. Teachers, one assumes, need to understand what a teacher leader story sounds like and how to draw those stories out of their experiences.

Second, the description tells us another thing they did: the retreat taught teachers how to share their stories to others. Teachers, one also assumes, need to convey their teacher leader stories in expressive and compelling ways.

Third, the description tells us a reason why they did it: individual personal narratives are being used to shape the larger cultural narrative. An assumption here is that the larger cultural narrative needs to be changed; there’s something harmful about that narrative that is keeping teachers from doing their best work.

Another assumption is that conveying individual (personal) narratives is a kind of first step toward building or influencing a larger (cultural) narrative. Pick your favorite metaphor here: personal narratives are bricks in a larger wall of cultural narrative; individual change is a catalyst toward cultural change, etc.

The rest of the retreat description identifies other, more specific storytelling skills participants learned: identifying your audience, refining your message, assessing the impact of your story, and the more relational goal of getting to know your colleagues who also have compelling stories to tell.

At the bottom of the webpage are links to three participants’ blogs about their experiences at the retreat. A couple of points are salient here.

Tricia Ebner explained how participants questioned their stories: whether their stories had value to others, whether their stories were well-told, and whether their stories would have impact. This shows that storytellers—especially those who are learning to tell their own stories—need to build confidence in their stories and their storytelling.

Noah Klein explained how our stories are tied to their failures, successes, strengths, and weaknesses. We learn from all kinds of stories: stories about what we’ve done well and stories about what we have done poorly.

This description of the CTQ storytelling retreat leaves a rough outline for developing storytelling as a form of professional development that also cultivates professional community.