From Experience to Knowledge: A Narrative-Reflective Protocol for Making Teachers Professional Knowledge Observable in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

Over the past decades, research on inclusive education has primarily focused on students with disabilities, while considerably less attention has been devoted to teachers living with visible or non-visible disabilities. At the same time, the rapid development of generative artificial intelligence has opened new perspectives for educational research, mainly supporting teaching and learning processes. However, its potential as a methodological device capable of fostering narrative reflexivity and making embodied professional knowledge observable remains largely unexplored.

This paper presents a theoretical and methodological framework developed within an ongoing doctoral research project aimed at designing a Narrative-Reflective Protocol for teachers with disabilities. The protocol integrates Narrative Inquiry, Disability Studies, Embodied Education, and professional reflexivity, introducing the construct of the Second Narrative Reader, a role assigned to generative artificial intelligence that provides participants with structured reflective feedback on their narratives without replacing human interpretation.

The underlying theoretical assumption is that the professional knowledge developed through the lived experience of disability often remains tacit and is difficult to document through conventional qualitative research methods. The dialogical feedback generated by the Second Narrative Reader is intended to foster a process of re-narration in which participants are encouraged to confirm, expand, or reinterpret the meaning of their professional experience. Consequently, the research data do not consist of the AI-generated output itself, but rather of the narrative transformations emerging from the comparison between the initial narrative and its subsequent re-elaboration by the participant.

The paper illustrates the theoretical rationale underpinning the protocol, presents the N.A.R.R.A.T.E. framework as its interpretative model, and describes the methodological design of the research. Finally, it discusses the potential implications of this proposal for narrative inquiry, teacher education, and the development of inclusive teacher professionalism.