Abstract
Abstract
This is a theoretical and an empirical study. The topic in this study is related to my assumption that storytelling is important as an educational approach in the inclusive kindergarten and school for children with and without special needs. This interest has been developed through my own experience of being fascinated by good stories from I was about four years old (maybe earlier) up till today. Telling stories for own children later and as pre-school teacher among children with and without special needs, has made me believe that storytelling performed in different ways can function as an important inclusive educational tool. My assumption is that storytelling may promote a feeling of identity, self-esteem, mastering of recognition and empathy and a feeling of belonging in every child. This may be promoted by the performance of content and meaning to all children through cultural universal characteristics of good stories creating excitement and expectations. And it may be promoted through an old deep structure with a happy ending or possible solutions to a problem with binary oppositions to establish order out of chaos, but the question is why and how?
In relation to my topic I want to investigate in what makes a narrative fascinating. What role may narratives have in children s lives? And in what way may narratives strengthen a child s identity and self-esteem?
Related to the topic the main research question is:
Why is storytelling important as an educational approach?
with two sub questions:
1) How to use storytelling? This leads me to the theoretical aspect; to clarify the concepts of a narrative and oral narrative with genres and then the characteristics of a fascinating story and ways of performance. Further storytelling is related to culture, values and attitude, identity and the concept of being different in society, and preschools children s understanding with implications.
2) The content of stories told for children? This is related to the importance of storytelling told for children to be investigated through theories and through fieldwork within an oral narrative tradition. The chosen fieldwork is in Kenya in West Pokot among Pokot people recording stories for analysing. The sub question two is divided into two parts: What is the content in stories about persons who are different in one way or another, having impairments and special needs and Which attitudes towards persons who are different do the stories convey? During fieldwork twenty-five stories are recorded. Stories about persons who are different in one way or another are categorised and seven are selected to be analysed and interpreted according to questions: In what way is a person different? and Is the person included in society? Through literature the national framework of the Pokot people with a historical perspective has been studied. Further the oral narrative tradition in Africa and Kenya and in the contemporary North European and Scandinavian concerning attitudes towards persons who are different in one way or another has been studied.
The theoretical and empirical data collected are summarised and discussed related to the topic and to the research question Why is storytelling important as an educational approach?
The obtained knowledge about the topic seems to emphasise the importance of and to open up for a traditional oral narrative performance as a joint activity for all children in the inclusive first of all kindergarten and also school, adapted to the experience of meaning of every child with and without special needs. This is supported by the clarification of what the content of a fascinating good story may be. The story with all the characteristics and the way of performance (Bruner, 1986), and the characteristic 1) Somatic understanding" and 2) Mythic understanding of pre-school children similar to the mythic understanding of people living within an illiterate oral culture, expressing themselves through abstract thinking with a typical metaphoric use of language, and also using rhythm like body movements, music, singing and rhyming Egan (1998). These understandings seem to have been undermined after literacy was introduced. Later Vygotsky (1962) in Bruner (1986) and in Egan (1998) has argued that children s mind and language develop in close interaction with caretakers in the culture where they grow up.
Folktales pass on an indomitable optimism in life that has a meaning in it self. Unconsciously the folktales will be a contribution to pass on this necessary attitude to the next generation; our children need it just as much as we need it (Brudal, 1984, p. 168 my translation).
Knowing that young children before literacy with and without special needs have their own way of understanding and are early exposed and sensitive to impressions - we may have a powerful educational tool using the oral African Kenyan Pokot way of telling stories corresponding to the somatic and mythic understanding.
With these perspectives storytelling for pre-school children with and without special needs seem to have at least two important aspects:
Storytelling performed within an oral narrative tradition like the Pokot way (adapted to culture) seems ideal for inclusive settings within the somatic" and the "mythic understanding (Egan, 1998).
Storytelling as an educational approach to promote a child s identity and the feeling of belonging strengthen self-esteem and values and attitudes.