Professional Education with Fiction Media - Imagination for Engagement and Empathy in Learning

This book analyses how narrative fictions can be used by faculty and staff in the teaching of professionals in higher education. As professional life becomes ever more demanding, this book draws together the work of researchers and practitioners who have explored the tremendous impact that narrative fictions - novels, short stories, drama and poetry - can have on development. The editors and contributors posit that fiction can help professionals imagine new ways of being, reinvent their roles and tackle problems without a road map. Using fiction can also provide a safe place for the exploration of ethics and decision making, as well as furnishing tools for the development of empathy and engagement by offering vicarious experiences of drastically different lives and situations. A medium that by its very nature contains a multiplicity of interpretations, using fiction in professional education can enhance the education of professionals working in a range of disciplines, including health, education, social care, law and science.

Christine Jarvis is Professor of Adult Education at the University of Huddersfield, UK. Her research interests combine literary studies, cultural studies and education, and she has published widely on the impact of literature upon student worldviews and children's and young adult fiction.

Patricia Gouthro is Professor in Graduate Studies in Lifelong Learning at Mount Saint Vincent University, Canada. Her research interests focus on adult and higher education and she has published extensively on lifelong learning and fiction writing.