My Sister's Locker: Creative Professional Learning for School Climate Improvement Using Collaborative Storying.

The purpose of this article is to present a study using an approach to creative professional learning based on forum-based role-player game (RPG) storying, which pushes the boundaries of both professional learning methods and performative narrative analysis toward collaboratively opening up space for improving school climate. This storying began with three teens who, during interviews, presented their experiences of unjust and inequitable treatment in public schools as related to ability, disability, race, and gender. Three educators then participated in collaborative storying, which afforded the suspension of disbelief and the imagining of potentialities through affect and embodiment of characters. Following the storying process, the educators participated in a focus group where they made several connections between the characters and personal experiences as both intersectional students and teachers. The application of this, or similar RPG storying activities, in professional learning was discussed, with an emphasis on the potential opportunity for teachers to learn/unlearn about students who live very different lives than themselves (e.g., gifted, different races, and different religions). Using RPG storying as a creative learning strategy opened the activity to difference, leading to reflection on values and norms and suggestions for practical applications in learning environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]