Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Educational Power of Fiction—An Interdisciplinary Exploration

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Professional Education with Fiction Media

  • 394 Accesses

Abstract

The opening chapter seeks to establish the specific attributes of fictional narratives that make them a powerful resource for developing professionals for a world in which the ability to imagine alternatives, reinvent roles, build networks and relationships, and operate within both virtual and physical environments has become critical. It does this by beginning to develop a unifying theoretical framework for the use of fiction to teach in professional contexts, drawing on literary theory, critical social theory and psychology. The framework is designed to help educators understand why and how fiction supports professional education and to provide explanatory and theoretical frameworks to justify the use of fictions in contexts in which the use of fiction might be less well understood, even dismissed as trivial.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abrams, M. (1993). The Norton anthology of English literature. New York: Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alheit, P. (2005). Stories and structures: An essay on historical times, narratives and their hidden impact on adult learning. Studies in the Education of Adults, 37(2), 201–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ball, S. (2008). The education debate. Bristol: Policy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnett, R. (2008). Critical professionalism in an age of super-complexity. In B. Cunningham (Ed.), Exploring professionalism (pp. 190–209). London: Institute for Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baseley, G. (Creator). (1950–). The Archers [Radio drama series]. UK: BBC Radio 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Billett, S. (2008). Learning throughout working life: A relational interdependence between personal and social agency. British Journal of Educational Studies, 56(1), 39–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Booth, C. (1983). The rhetoric of fiction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, R., & Myers, J. (1988). Transformative education. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 7(4), 261–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bradbury, H., Frost, N., Kilminster, S., & Zukas, M. (Eds.). (2010). Beyond reflective practice: New approaches to professional lifelong learning. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brookfield, S. (2005). The power of critical theory for adult learning and teaching. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruner, J. (1991). The narrative construction of reality. Critical Inquiry, 18(1), 1–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cain, B., & Dixon, J. (2013). The arts connection: The arts and transformative learning in professional development. Journal of Transformative Education, 11(4), 261–274.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, M., & Rossiter, M. (2008). Narrative learning in adulthood. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education—Special Issue: Third Update on Adult Learning Theory, 119, 61–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clover, D. (2015). Adult education for social and environmental change in contemporary public art galleries and museums in Canada, Scotland and England. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 34(3), 300–315.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clover, D., & Sandford, K. (2013). Lifelong learning, the arts and community cultural engagement in the contemporary university. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cobley, P. (2014). Narrative. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Code, L. (2014). Ignorance, injustice, and the politics of knowledge: Feminist epistemology now. Australian Feminist Studies, 29(80), 148–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dirkx, J. (2006). Engaging emotions in adult learning: A Jungian perspective on emotion and transformative learning. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 2006(109), 15–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Djikic, M., & Oatley, K. (2014). The art in fiction: From indirect communication to changes of the self. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 8(4), 498–505.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eastman, C. (2014). English literature and work-based learning: A pedagogical case study. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 33(2), 141–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fenwick, T. (2013). Understanding transitions in professional practice and learning: Towards new questions for research. Journal of Workplace Learning, 25(6), 352–367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fenwick, T., & Nerland, M. (Eds.). (2014). Reconceptualising professional learning: Sociomaterial knowledges, practices, and responsibilities. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fish, S. (1980). Is there a text in this class? The authority of interpretive communities. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1975). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freidson, E. (2001). Professionalism: The third logic. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frye, N., O’Grady, J., & French, G. (2001). Collected works of Northrop Frye, volume 7: Northrop Frye’s writings on education. North York: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Furedi, F. (2006). Where have all the intellectuals gone: Confronting 21st century philistinism. London: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillborn, D. (2006). Critical race theory and education: Racism and anti-racism in educational theory and praxis. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 27 (1), 11–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giroux, H. (2004). Cultural studies, public pedagogy, and the responsibility of intellectuals. Communication and Cultural/Critical Studies, 1(1), 59–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gouthro, P., & Holloway, S. (2013). Reclaiming the radical: Using fiction to explore adult learning connected to citizenship. Studies in the Education of Adults, 45(1), 41–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. (1972). Knowledge and human interests (J. Shapiro, Trans.). Boston: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haddon, M. (2003). The curious incident of the dog in the night-time. London: Jonathan Cape.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, S. (1980). Encoding/decoding. In S. Hall, D. Hobson, A. Lowe, & P. Willis (Eds.), Culture, media, language (pp. 128–139). Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman, M. (2000). Empathy and prosocial behavior. In M. Lewis & J. Haviland-Jones (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 440–455). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman, M. (2001). Empathy and moral development: Implications for caring and justice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoggan, C., & Cranton, P. (2015). Promoting transformative learning through reading fiction. Journal of Transformative Education, 13(1), 6–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holley, R. (2016). The value of fiction as management training. Journal of Library Administration, 56(3), 335–343.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hudson, A. (2016). Decolonising indigenous youth studies: Photography and Hip Hop as sites of resilience. Doctoral thesis, Graduate Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, University of Toronto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iser, W. (1980). The act of reading: A theory of aesthetic response. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jarvis, C. (2001). Travellers’ tales: From adult education to lifelong learning… and beyond; proceedings of the 31st annual conference of SCUTREA. Studies in the Education of Adults, 33(2), 95–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jarvis, C. (2006). Using fiction for transformation. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 2006(109), 69–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jarvis, C., & Gouthro, P. (2015). The role of the arts in professional education: Surveying the field. Studies in the Education of Adults, 47(1), 64–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, D. (2012). Transportation into a story increases empathy, prosocial behavior, and perceptual bias toward fearful expressions. Personality and Individual Differences, 52(2), 150–155.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jubas, K., & Knutson, P. (2013). Fictions of work-related learning: How a hit television show portrays internship, and how medical students relate to those portrayals. Studies in Continuing Education, 35(2), 224–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jung, C., & Read, H. (1968). The collected works of C.G. Jung: Volume 9, part 1, the archetypes and the collective unconscious (R. Hull Trans.). London: Routledge and K. Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karpiak, I. (2010). After life review: Autobiography as ‘art of the future’. Studies in Continuing Education, 32(1), 47–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keen, S. (2007). Empathy and the novel. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kinsella, E. (2007). Educating socially-responsive practitioners: What can the literary arts offer health professional education? In D. Clover & J. Stalker (Eds.), The arts and social justice: Re-crafting activist adult education and community leadership (pp. 39–58). Leicester: NIACE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kinsella, E., & Bidinosti, S. (2016). ‘I now have a visual image in my mind and it is something I will never forget’: An analysis of an arts-informed approach to health professions ethics education. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 21(2), 303–322.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knapp, B. (1984). A Jungian approach to literature. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kucukaydin, I., & Cranton, P. (2013). Critically questioning the discourse of transformative learning theory. Adult Education Quarterly, 63(1), 43–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawrence, R., & Paige, D. (2016). What our ancestors knew: Teaching and learning through storytelling. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 2016(149), 63–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lerner, N. (2010). Music in the horror film: Listening to fear. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Light, T. P., Nicholas, J., & Bondy, R. (Eds.). (2015). Feminist pedagogy in higher education: Critical theory and practice. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacDonnell, J., & Macdonald, J. (2011). Arts-based critical inquiry in nursing and interdisciplinary professional education: Guided imagery, images, narratives, and poetry. Journal of Transformative Education, 9(4), 203–221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maynes, M., Pierce, J., & Laslett, B. (2008). Telling stories: The use of personal narratives in social sciences and history. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGregor, C. (2012). Art-informed pedagogy: Tools for social transformation. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 31(3), 309–324.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mezirow, J. (1981). A critical theory of adult learning and education. Adult Education Quarterly, 32(1), 3–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moon, J. (2010). Using story in higher education and professional development. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, J. (Director). (2001). I am Sam [Motion picture]. USA: New Line Cinema, Avery Pix, The Bedford Falls Company, and Red Fish Blue Fish Films.

    Google Scholar 

  • Persson, I., & Persson, K. (2008). Fiction and film as teaching instruments in higher health care education. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 32(2), 111–118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Polkinghorne, D. (1988). Narrative knowing and the human sciences. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reid, H., & West, L. (Eds.). (2015). Constructing narratives of continuity and change: A transdisciplinary approach to researching lives. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riessman, C. (1993). Narrative analysis. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riessman, C. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rimmon-Kenan, S. (2002). Narrative fiction: Contemporary poetics. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenblatt, L. (1938/1995). Literature as exploration. New York: Modern Language Association (Original work published 1938).

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenblatt, L. (1978). The reader, the text, the poem: The transactional theory of the literary work. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ryde, R. (2012). Never mind the bosses: Hastening the death of deference for business success. London: Wiley.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sandlin, J., Wright, R., & Clark, C. (2011). Re-examining theories of adult learning and adult development through the lenses of public pedagogy. Adult Education Quarterly, 63(1), 3–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shapiro, J., & Stein, H. (2005). Poetic license: Writing poetry as a way for medical students to examine their professional relational systems. Families, Systems, & Health, 23(3), 278–292.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Slade, B. (2013). Professional learning in rural practice: A sociomaterial analysis. Journal of Workplace Learning, 25(2), 114–124. https://doi.org/(10.1108/13665621311299799.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taber, N. (2018). Le cochon, a washed up mermaid, and soldier’s bread: Three generations of Acadian women at the intersection of museums and fiction. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 37(1), 4–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370.2017.1356881.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, P. (2007). The influence of popular culture and entertainment media on adult education. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 2007(115), 83–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tisdell, E. (2008). Critical media literacy and transformative learning: Drawing on pop culture and entertainment media in teaching for diversity in adult higher education. Journal of Transformative Education, 6(1), 48–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tisdell, E., & Thompson, P. (2007). ‘Seeing from a different angle’: The role of pop culture in teaching for diversity and critical media literacy in adult education. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 26(6), 651–673.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tompkins, J. (1980). Reader-response criticism: From formalism to post-structuralism. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, L. (2013). Encouraging professional growth among social work students through literature assignments: Narrative literature’s capacity to inspire professional growth and empathy. British Journal of Social Work, 43(5), 853–871.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vallée, J. (Director). (2014). Wild [Motion picture]. USA: Bob Industries, Fox Searchlight Pictures, and Pacific Standard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vettraino, E., Linds, W., & Goulet, L. (2013). Click, clack, move: Facilitation of the arts as transformative pedagogy. Journal of Transformative Education, 11(3), 190–208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • West, L. (2014). Transformative learning and the form that transforms: Towards a psychosocial theory of recognition using auto/biographical narrative research. Journal of Transformative Education, 12(2), 164–179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whitty, G. (2008). Changing modes of teacher professionalism: Traditional, managerial, collaborative and democratic. In B. Cunningham (Ed.), Exploring professionalism (pp. 28–50). London: Institute for Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zukas, M., & Kilminster, S. (2014). The doctor and the blue form: Learning professional responsibility. In T. Fenwick & M. Nerland (Eds.), Reconceptualising professional learning: Sociomaterial knowledges, practices and responsibilities (pp. 38–51). Oxford: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK

    Christine Jarvis

Authors
  1. Christine Jarvis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christine Jarvis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK

    Christine Jarvis

  2. Faculty of Education, Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Patricia Gouthro

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Jarvis, C. (2019). The Educational Power of Fiction—An Interdisciplinary Exploration. In: Jarvis, C., Gouthro, P. (eds) Professional Education with Fiction Media. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17693-8_1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17693-8_1

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-17692-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-17693-8

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation