Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (Summer 2011)

Storytelling is a tradition that has been practiced for many, many years. Although storytelling was initially practiced orally, it has transformed so that it is practiced in written form as well. The original purpose of storytelling was thought to be to express a community’s beliefs, values, and attitudes, but storytelling has evolved so that it serves many different purposes. People often tell stories “to remember, instill cultural knowledge, grapple with a problem, rethink the status quo, soothe, empathize, inspire, speculate, justify a position, dispute, tattle, evaluate one’s and others’ identities, shame, tease, laud, entertain, among other ends.” (p. 321) No matter what the reason may be, storytelling is a practice that enhances literacy.

The study described in this article tells us about three Southern Sudanese refugees (Chol, Ezra, and Francis) who used storytelling as a means to adjust to their new life in the U.S and to share experiences about life in the Sudan. The Lost Boys used storytelling in their writing assignments for school to tell about their life. For a college writing assignment, Chol wrote an autobiography that talked about the many journeys he had been on and some of his achievements. From his autobiography, it is very obvious that he is very proud of the achievements he has accomplished, despite the traumatic childhood he had. Allowing the Lost Boys or other refugees the opportunity to write or tell their stories “may offer refugees an outlet for dealing with painful memories or emotions, it may help educators and other non-refugees understand refugees’ experiences, and it may help empower refugees and others to act.” (p. 354)

Hopefully our students haven’t had such dramatic experiences in their lives, but we never know what secrets some of them may be hiding. Although our students may not be refugees and probably did not have to make the long journey from their homeland to the United States themselves, they all have issues that affect them. No matter how major or minor the issue, it always helps to be able to share it with someone else, either orally or written. We need to give our students the opportunity to tell their stories- where they have been, what they have done, and what they hope to become. I have mentioned in an earlier post that I like the idea of requiring students to write journal reflections and the teacher taking time to respond. This provides an excellent “outlet” for our students to share information with us, and to just get things ‘off their chest.’ Before we can expect our students to be comfortable doing this, we must provide them with a safe and trusting environment. They need to know that we want to hear their story, and that we care about the issues they are dealing with. After all, we are all storytellers, and we all want people to listen to our stories. Our students are also storytellers; we just have to provide the opportunity for their voices to be heard.

Lisa Beach