Narrative education: Towards a theory of story-based learning

Contemporary educational philosophy often treats narrative as a pedagogical tool—a means of delivering content or engaging students. Yet narrative does deeper work: it provides the teleological frame through which students grasp why they learn, not merely what they know. Our model of narrative education repositions story not as technique but as the matrix through which learning acquires meaning. Drawing on Jerome Bruner’s concept of narrative intelligence and Alasdair MacIntyre’s account of narrative identity, we argue that narrative education responds to the epistemological impoverishment produced by the dominance of Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) and outcomes-based instructional frameworks, which displace meaning-making in favour of schema acquisition. We situate this critique through Immanuel Kant’s distinction between Verstand (intellect organising experience into verifiable knowledge) and Vernunft (reason seeking meaning), as interpreted by Hannah Arendt. Where CLT installs Verstand as the governing philosophy of schooling, narrative education recovers Vernunft. Story-based learning rests on three claims: narrative organises experience into meaningful patterns; education flourishes when students form narratives of intellectual development; and narrative education trains students to read learning as a story—attending to plot, character, and telos in their educational lives. The ancient Jewish genre of Midrash exemplifies this approach, showing how narrative education transforms learning from information acquisition into meaning-making.