Storytelling to Teach Cultural Awareness: The Right Story at the Right Time

Stories contain the wisdom of the world, teaching cultural values. Story builds community, celebrates cultural diversity, and preserves cultural identity. Where truth has been suppressed, story is an instrument of epiphany; story builds literacy skills and develops metaphorical understanding. A storytelling center in Ontario, Canada, had been a cultural institution for 23 years and developed the art and craft of storytelling in the members of its storytelling guild. When the center faced permanent closure, members were devastated. The conceptual underpinnings for this research study were narrative theory, place theory, and knowledge communities. Narrative theory postulates that storytelling is a universal experience; place theory incorporates sense of place, place attachment, and place identity. In knowledge communities, knowledge is constructed through narrative and shared practice. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore member perceptions of story, storytelling, and leadership and to investigate the moment of this lived experience using interviews and focus groups. Findings indicated that story strengthens both content retention and language acquisition. These findings led to the development of project focused on story-centered lessons for teachers. [This paper was published in "LEARNing Landscapes," v7 n2 p219-232 2014.]