Purpose
As teacher educators, we have long concerned ourselves with teachers’ professional development. In this study, a collaborative-narrative approach was used to facilitate the professional development of preschool teachers. The aims were to explore the process of a collaborative-narrative approach, and to reconceptualize the preschoolteachers’ professional development.

Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted narrative inquiry. Researchers invited eight preschool teachers to form a “collaborative-narrative group,” which focused on the narration of life and teaching stories in a course that spanned 18 months long. The group involved reading and narration, group interactions, dialogues and reflections, and discussions of difficulties encountered during teaching. Researchers’ responsibilities were to encourage and guide the collaborators’ engagement in narration, dialogues, and discussions. Data involving the process of the collaborative-narrative group were collected through observations, interviews, and document analysis, followed by a thematic analysis method to examine the collected data.

Findings
The study results showed that the key factors of the collaborative-narrative approach that facilitated the professional development of preschool teachers included the teachers’ subjective attention, establishment of team cohesion, awareness and establishment of the teachers’ identity, and reflective thinking conducted through a three-way interaction between the collaborators, researchers, course text. The approach for developing in-service preschool teachers’ professional development education was reconceptualized through the idea of caring for and expanding life. This approach helped teachers develop a border-crossing identity between teacher and learner. Moreover, multiple reflections were conducted to deconstruct experience and convert it to knowledge. Finally, a diversified method was applied to acquire knowledge through triple narrative, reflections, dialogues, constructions, and actions.

Originality/value
Collaborative-narrative approach was seldom applies in preschool teachers professional development in Taiwan. This study develops the strategies of collaborative-narrative approach based on local school culture and context and proposes the recommendations for teacher education programs for preschool teachers.