Professional provenance and the narrative construction of ‘reality’ in education

Teachers’ and teacher educators’ capabilities to create and engage in humanizing and meaningful learning and development with the participants and communities they serve underpins purposeful education practices and curricula. Such capabilities are constituent in establishing professional provenance in education. Effective educators draw on a myriad of premediated knowledge and expertise, but in ways that respond to and sustain learners’ and communities’ ongoing development. The pivotal role of narrative in the project of establishing and sustaining professional provenance in education is presented in this chapter, together with a personal reflection on the importance and significance of Ivor Goodson’s work, to the broader project of professional provenance in education. Goodson’s commitment to meaningful and humanizing forms of education have characterized his life’s research and work, and this chapter I hope offers a brief insight into this contribution, at a time when education nationally and globally, is becoming increasingly prescriptive and dehumanized.