Welcome to the PNI Practicum
Project-based courses in Participatory Narrative Inquiry (PNI). Learn by doing with the help of an expert coach in a group of your peers.
What’s PNI? It’s a form of Participatory Action Research in which groups of people share stories about their experiences to make sense of situations together. Researchers, teachers, facilitators, organizers, managers, designers, and other helpers use PNI to help people discover insights, catch emerging trends, make decisions, generate ideas, resolve conflicts, and build connections.
What’s the PNI Practicum? It’s a set of three online project-based courses in doing PNI. Every student in every course does a real PNI project, whether it’s one big project or your own custom project.
About the PNI Practicum Courses
PNI Practicum Prelude
4 weeks. Collaborate on a single, shared project. Gather 4+ stories from 3+ people; facilitate a sensemaking exercise.
Smaller-scale PNI
12 weeks. Carry out your own small, exploratory PNI project. Gather 24+ stories from 6+ people; facilitate a sensemaking workshop.
Larger-scale PNI
20 weeks. Carry out your own larger and more complex PNI project. Gather 100+ stories from 20+ people; build catalytic material; facilitate multiple sensemaking workshops.
Course Calendar
| Prelude | Smaller-scale | Larger-scale | |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | Monday | Thursday | |
| February | Wednesday | Thursday (continued) | |
| March | Tuesday (normally) | Wednesday (continued) | Thursday (continued) |
| April | Tuesday (2026 only) | Wednesday (continued) | Thursday (continued) |
| May | Wednesday | Tuesday | Thursday (continued) |
| June | Tuesday (continued) | Wednesday | |
| July | Thursday | Tuesday (continued) | Wednesday (continued) |
| August | (no August meetings) | ||
| September | Monday | Thursday | Wednesday (continued) |
| October | Thursday (continued) | Wednesday (continued) | |
| November | Tuesday | Thursday (continued) | Wednesday (continued) |
| December |
This schedule is subject to change, and it may differ for individual course cohorts. All class meetings take place at 2pm US Eastern time (Standard or Daylight Savings Time), which is (usually) 11am US Pacific time, 8pm CET, and 6am Australian Eastern time.