Abstract

Rising to the demands of academic writing, scholarship and research is challenging for
many practitioners in post compulsory education. Only a small number manage to see their research
through to completion and write-up. Therefore, their work is under-represented in peer-reviewed,
published literature in the field of educational research. This article foregrounds the role of stories,
storytelling and image in the development of different kinds of language, including scholarship
and academic writing. Narrative accounts of experiences of practitioner-researchers beginning to
engage in research through intensive residential research development workshops, delivered as
part of a national Practitioner Research Programme (PRP), are used to illustrate the power of oracy,
imagery and story in extending our ability to develop language; research and represent experience;
and portray different forms of understanding in a range of educational contexts. The results indicate
that being able to listen, read and ‘see’ the research stories of more experienced researchers, as well as
telling stories of their own experiences of research, enables participants to become more comfortable
in using experiences of educational practice as a starting point for research and to regard research
and practice not as a dichotomy or as separate activities, but as dynamic and integral aspects of
educational improvement.