Narrative Pedagogy
1.I have been researching narrative pedagogy as a means for integrating earth science and literacy education. I am in a doctoral program in environmental studies and am concerned as a parent, teacher of teachers, prior classroom teacher, environmental educator, and gifted and talented coordinator, that many of our children, particularly from grades 4 - 12, are not excited about earth science as a potential career choice. With global environmental and climate change, we have some very intricate problems to solve and new realizations to discover, and we’ll need a future generation of earth scientists and educated citizenry to participate in the solutions.
There is a great deal of research on a global scale about the use of storytelling (or orality) in education to engage the emotions and therefore the intellect. I recommend more professional development on the use of narrative pedagogy in curriculum. My students go into local partner schools and tell and teach storytelling to students at the sixth grade level. The teachers and the students are highly motivated.
All cultures begin with storytelling as their primary educational tool; we need to embrace the skills our ancestors used to encourage thinking and transfer knowledge.
Educational research grants to promote narrative pedagogy and build professional development in such skills, available to institutions of higher education’s teacher training programs and K - 12 school districts would nurture such training.
2. Students who are talented learners have social and emotional challenges and are most often disenfranchised in our schools. Teachers do not have adequate training in the develoopmental and educational needs of the gifted, who could become leaders in solving national and global problems. Often these learners do not make continuous progress in school, because the focus on the school is to raise the scores of those students who are struggling.
In addition, many talented learners become disengaged and drop out of school, particularly if they do not have family support.
A further investment in research and meeting the needs of the gifted learner in our nation’s schools is paramount to our future success as a nation. When we say “no child left behind” we are forgetting these children.
This post was submitted by Meredith Bird Miller.
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