‘Our stories were pretty weird too’ – Children as creators of a shared narrative culture in an intercultural story and drawing exchange

Abstract

In today’s globalised, interconnected world, intercultural learning is relevant and necessary for children of all backgrounds and ages. This study investigates how a shared narrative culture forms between primary school children in Finland and Belgium during an intercultural Storycrafting and drawing exchange. Ethnographic and narrative data are analysed by following a chain of related situations over the course of the exchange. The findings show that a shared narrative culture was negotiated in a third space between the Storycrafting communities, where the third space was constituted by narrativity, imagination, emotions, creativity, communality and cultural repertoires. To conclude, pedagogies of intercultural learning should engage children aesthetically and narratively and include opportunities for developing connections between and within children’s communities.