Taking part by Telling StoriesNicola Grove

Openstorytellers

www.openstorytellers.org.uk

Openstorytellers

Research

Story

Process

Research Story

Story and research

Theory

• A theory is an idea which:-

• Helps you think about problems

• Explains why something happens

• Suggests what will happen next

Partial Participation

You CAN do something

Even if you can’t do EVERYTHING

Baumgart et al., 1982

Theories about storytellingwhat do these images suggest?

Stories are what you read to kids: in education this is the dominant idea; almost no oral personal narrative in curriculum

Stories are performances by

one person, everyone listens

quietly.Can lead to “oh dear, I can’t tell

stories”

People tell stories together,

the listener is actively

involved; stories of personal

experience are face to face, animated.

EVERYONE does this all the

time!

This is what we do in

Storysharing

&

Storysharing is…

• Telling stories together• Using whatever communication skills are

available• Focusing on meaning and feelings

Hopes and Dreams project

• Ideas you can grasp

• cf. Natural semantic metalanguage Wierzbicka, 2010

• Photo of girl holding heart cushion, representing love, dreams

• Photo of girl holding megaphone to represent voice, speaking up

Community: mobility allowance campaign 2011

• We need money for our bus – jigsaw of bus

• Each person chooses a piece of the bus as their contribution

• We put the bus jigsaw together – we need all our money

• A lady tells the story of how going to Stonehenge in the bus helped her to remember a trip there when she was little – she has just relocated to our home in Wiltshire from the Midlands. This helped her to feel connected and manage the transition.

• We sent a DVD of our presentation to the MP. He supported our campaign to keep mobility allowance for people in residential settings

Truth to power: telling stories

• We hold participatory meetings about local civic issues where people are supported to share their experiences. Here we are telling them to our MP. We use music, karoake, objects and communication aids so everyone can join in

Key points

• Co-authoring• Working together• Finding the one key

contribution that each person can make

Contact www.openstorytellers.org.uk

For information on Storysharing and community connecting