Our Team
Dr Joanna Wheeler
I am founder and director of TransformativeStory. My current work focuses on how storytelling can cross social divides and challenge dominant political narratives of exclusion. Over the last 18 years, I have conducted more than 80 storytelling processes around the world, combining personal and collective forms of storytelling using drawing, dance, music, drama, photography, video, audio, and sculpture. I have worked with a wide range of groups, from activists against sexual violence in Cape Town to young people from southern Africa working for gender equity. I am passionate about helping others learn to use storytelling to make research more inclusive.
Dr Alison Buckler
I am a Senior Research Fellow at The Open University in the UK. Over the past fifteen years I have used a wide range of creative, narrative and storytelling approaches in my research. I am especially interested in the relationship between storytelling, inclusion and belonging in education. I have worked with Joanna on storytelling initiatives all over the world and online, and Transformative Story’s ethos and approach underpins a number of my own research studies. These include a longitudinal storytelling study with young women in Zimbabwe who have not completed formal schooling, and a story-based research approach with teacher educators in Uganda. I am also a co-founder of the Ibali Network which connects and supports early career researchers interested in storytelling and education research.