Presentation Abstract: This presentation focuses on the power of narrative and personal experience in a course that engaged teachers in a meaningful way. This work examines teachers’ experiences of a field study of Civil Rights historical sites. Data sources included evaluator's field notes, teacher focus groups, and reflective journals. Teachers’ learning was enhanced by hearing “testimonial” accounts of key Civil Rights events from Movement activists and community members and through their own first-hand experiences of these places. In addition, participants felt that the power of these narratives and experiences would enable them to “bring history to life” for their students. I will also discuss the value of my own experience as a “participant-evaluator” during this field study and the related implications for evaluation practice, arguing for deep evaluator engagement. Finally, I will argue that narrative-based approaches might be applied across multiple contexts to promote teacher engagement in learning.#2012Conference #QualitativeMethods #participatory #narrative #CivilRights