Farhia Hersi
"The Power of Teachers' Choice": a qualitative study of teachers' knowledge, beliefs and practices relating to promoting cultural diversity using children's literature.
In Wales, the foundation phase framework (FPF) for the early years places great importance on young children developing a strong sense of identity and celebrating diversity. Additionally, curriculum activities and assessments aim to pursue the purposes of the new curriculum for Wales, one of which is the development of ethically informed citizens of the world (Donaldson, 2015). The use of children’s literature plays a critical role in promoting diversity in the early years, as it supports children in developing an understanding of themselves and those who may be culturally different to them (Magos, 2018).
This study aimed to investigate Primary School teachers’ understanding and beliefs and the factors influencing their knowledge and confidence in addressing and promoting diversity using children’s literature. Using semi-structured interviews with seven teachers from a primary school in South East Wales, a constructivist and an interpretivist approach were employed to explore the teachers’ perceptions and understandings. This study on the significance of promoting diversity using children's literature is more crucial than ever. Considering the underrepresentation of diverse characters in literature and the curriculum aims, it is vital to explore teachers’ knowledge, understanding, beliefs and confidence in addressing and promoting diversity using children’s literature.
This study identified four key findings around addressing diversity using children’s literature. First, their experiences in and outside their teaching context influenced their beliefs and understandings. Second, teachers’ knowledge and confidence in addressing and promoting diversity using children’s books were limited due to a lack of curriculum guidance and white fragility. Thirdly, teachers’ practices in addressing and promoting diversity were hindered due to the lack of quality, diverse books available. Finally, current teachers’ practice demonstrated limited knowledge of promoting diversity using children’s literature outside of cultural and religious celebrations. These findings have implications for teachers, schools, and initial teacher education providers for Primary school teachers.
Professor Sanja Tatalović Vorkapić, Professor Shu-Chen Jenny Yen, Olesya Saban
Improving Children’s Well-being: Social Story as a Tool for Aiding Children to Cope with the Ukraine/Russia War.
Storytelling is universal and has long been proven to have a positive effect on children’s well-being. Amid different forms of storytelling, research evidence revealed that social stories can assist children at risk with their development of memory, empathy, and literacy skills. Most recently the social story approach has been expanded to a large scale to create timely social stories to assist vulnerable children who need social-emotional support in different risk situations. We found that the use of social stories has the potential to provide significant value, particularly in addressing the complex situation of the ongoing Ukraine/Russia war. This conflict has brought immeasurable challenges to innocent children, with the pervasive presence of loss, physical harm, emotional distress, mistreatment, and the constant threat of missiles. The necessity of seeking refuge in anti-bomb shelters has become an unfortunate part of their daily reality. Amidst this chaotic situation, social stories could bring forth a glimmer of hope. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is threefold: showcase the social story titled “After a War,” demonstrate the process of empowering the young generation in the aiding process, and most of all, share a collaboration model of three educators from Ukraine, Croatia, and the US. The current model of international collaboration has touched many children’s lives around the world, especially refugee children. Significant practice implications and future research guidelines on the impact that social stories have on children’s social-emotional development and the endeavour to continue helping Ukrainian children, especially children living in orphanages, will be discussed as well.
Dr Marie Clancy, Beth Dennis
Methodological approaches to using poetry in research with refugee children and their families experiencing palliative care.
Within palliative care, it has long been noted that the circumstances in which a patient or family member may find themselves can be indescribable. It is thus understandable that in times of sorrow, grief or perplexity solace and representation may be found in creative forms such as poetry (Brennan, 2020; Gilmour, Riccobono and Haraldsdottir, 2020).
Creative methods have been thought to draw readers closer to the lived stories of participants by their aesthetic evocation. It has also been suggested that the use of creative methods can support research participants, particularly those whose first language is not English, to share otherwise hard-to-reach aspects of their lived experience and to voice issues of concern that they may never or rarely be asked about. Taking examples from a research study exploring the experiences of refugee and asylum seeking families in children’s palliative care, examples will be explored to highlight the potential benefits of using poetry in research.
First, the methods used to create poetry with families during research interviews and second, working with advisory group members with lived experience relevant to the research topic, to create poetry from participants interview transcripts to further illuminate their experiences.
The use of creative methods such as poetry has been offered by some researchers as a way to address some of the major concerns of qualitative research; that interpretations offered are only the opinions of researchers and that only the few eloquent participants that have the requisite communication skills to articulate their experiences adequately are included in research studies (Willig, 2008; Tuffour, 2017). This presentation will explore methodological aspects of poetic engagement as a means to increase inclusion and lived experience expertise when conducting research with refugee families.
"The Power of Teachers' Choice": a qualitative study of teachers' knowledge, beliefs and practices relating to promoting cultural diversity using children's literature.
In Wales, the foundation phase framework (FPF) for the early years places great importance on young children developing a strong sense of identity and celebrating diversity. Additionally, curriculum activities and assessments aim to pursue the purposes of the new curriculum for Wales, one of which is the development of ethically informed citizens of the world (Donaldson, 2015). The use of children’s literature plays a critical role in promoting diversity in the early years, as it supports children in developing an understanding of themselves and those who may be culturally different to them (Magos, 2018).
This study aimed to investigate Primary School teachers’ understanding and beliefs and the factors influencing their knowledge and confidence in addressing and promoting diversity using children’s literature. Using semi-structured interviews with seven teachers from a primary school in South East Wales, a constructivist and an interpretivist approach were employed to explore the teachers’ perceptions and understandings. This study on the significance of promoting diversity using children's literature is more crucial than ever. Considering the underrepresentation of diverse characters in literature and the curriculum aims, it is vital to explore teachers’ knowledge, understanding, beliefs and confidence in addressing and promoting diversity using children’s literature.
This study identified four key findings around addressing diversity using children’s literature. First, their experiences in and outside their teaching context influenced their beliefs and understandings. Second, teachers’ knowledge and confidence in addressing and promoting diversity using children’s books were limited due to a lack of curriculum guidance and white fragility. Thirdly, teachers’ practices in addressing and promoting diversity were hindered due to the lack of quality, diverse books available. Finally, current teachers’ practice demonstrated limited knowledge of promoting diversity using children’s literature outside of cultural and religious celebrations. These findings have implications for teachers, schools, and initial teacher education providers for Primary school teachers.
Professor Sanja Tatalović Vorkapić, Professor Shu-Chen Jenny Yen, Olesya Saban
Improving Children’s Well-being: Social Story as a Tool for Aiding Children to Cope with the Ukraine/Russia War.
Storytelling is universal and has long been proven to have a positive effect on children’s well-being. Amid different forms of storytelling, research evidence revealed that social stories can assist children at risk with their development of memory, empathy, and literacy skills. Most recently the social story approach has been expanded to a large scale to create timely social stories to assist vulnerable children who need social-emotional support in different risk situations. We found that the use of social stories has the potential to provide significant value, particularly in addressing the complex situation of the ongoing Ukraine/Russia war. This conflict has brought immeasurable challenges to innocent children, with the pervasive presence of loss, physical harm, emotional distress, mistreatment, and the constant threat of missiles. The necessity of seeking refuge in anti-bomb shelters has become an unfortunate part of their daily reality. Amidst this chaotic situation, social stories could bring forth a glimmer of hope. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is threefold: showcase the social story titled “After a War,” demonstrate the process of empowering the young generation in the aiding process, and most of all, share a collaboration model of three educators from Ukraine, Croatia, and the US. The current model of international collaboration has touched many children’s lives around the world, especially refugee children. Significant practice implications and future research guidelines on the impact that social stories have on children’s social-emotional development and the endeavour to continue helping Ukrainian children, especially children living in orphanages, will be discussed as well.
Dr Marie Clancy, Beth Dennis
Methodological approaches to using poetry in research with refugee children and their families experiencing palliative care.
Within palliative care, it has long been noted that the circumstances in which a patient or family member may find themselves can be indescribable. It is thus understandable that in times of sorrow, grief or perplexity solace and representation may be found in creative forms such as poetry (Brennan, 2020; Gilmour, Riccobono and Haraldsdottir, 2020).
Creative methods have been thought to draw readers closer to the lived stories of participants by their aesthetic evocation. It has also been suggested that the use of creative methods can support research participants, particularly those whose first language is not English, to share otherwise hard-to-reach aspects of their lived experience and to voice issues of concern that they may never or rarely be asked about. Taking examples from a research study exploring the experiences of refugee and asylum seeking families in children’s palliative care, examples will be explored to highlight the potential benefits of using poetry in research.
First, the methods used to create poetry with families during research interviews and second, working with advisory group members with lived experience relevant to the research topic, to create poetry from participants interview transcripts to further illuminate their experiences.
The use of creative methods such as poetry has been offered by some researchers as a way to address some of the major concerns of qualitative research; that interpretations offered are only the opinions of researchers and that only the few eloquent participants that have the requisite communication skills to articulate their experiences adequately are included in research studies (Willig, 2008; Tuffour, 2017). This presentation will explore methodological aspects of poetic engagement as a means to increase inclusion and lived experience expertise when conducting research with refugee families.
