Chapter 11: Insights From India: Learning About Culture Through Photos and Journal Writing

The paper presented here draws on the constructivist theoretical lens and Bruner’s (1991) approach of narrative inquiry. In this approach, narratives are viewed as the way in which individuals construct and make sense of reality as well as the ways in which meanings are created and shared. According to Clandinin and Huber (in press), narrative inquiry is a way of thinking about, and studying experience. Data collected through my 12-day travel journal and photographs from the journey will be analyzed. The focus of this form of analysis is on the interpretation of events related in the narratives of my storytelling, as well as data collection in the form of my travel journal and photographs. During my experiences, I took numerous photographs of the people and places I visited, which will be used in conjunction with my journal entries to unpack my thoughts about what and how I learned about the Indian culture and how to take this new knowledge back to the classroom to influence cultural learning of preservice teachers. Any photos of people that may be shared are photos where the person being photographed gave me verbal permission. Photos of subjects who were unaware of their photograph being taken will be used only for analyses and will not be shared with others in a research capacity due to the sensitive nature of the photos and respect for privacy. Both the constructivist theoretical lens and narrative inquiry approach give insight to the reframing of the participant’s initial interpretation of cultural understanding to gain a perspective through firsthand experience.