Telling their stories: A study of librarians' use of narrative in instruction

Abstract Narratives are the heuristics the brain uses to make sense of the world. When they are embraced in teaching, they make the process more efficient, engaging and enjoyable for both students and instructors. While the insights of psychologists, neuroscientists and education researchers into the cognitive and affective mechanisms of meaning-making are not new, capitalizing on these insights in order to engage and instruct is part of a recent trend of evidence-based educational practices. This study is unique in that it uses a phenomenological methodology and semi-structured interviews with 19 academic librarians who teach in Canadian higher education institutions to determine what narrative tools or approaches they use, and to what extent these practices may enrich both their outcomes and their teaching praxis. The authors document the variety of ways in which librarians use narrative techniques instinctively, categorizing these teaching narratives into concepts with more granular themes. A purposeful use and reuse of these narrative techniques, the authors hope, will help inform librarian teaching and reflective practice.