Narrative Storytelling Research Articles

Attuning to geostories: Learning encounters with urban plants

This paper is a call for educators to respond to the problematics that arise from reducing the Earth to a resource for human activities. The concept of ‘Anthropocene’ is a burning invitation to rethink education by putting the human to its place. We therefore argue for a spatial-embodied conceptualization of learning, which involves the more-than-human and nonrepresentational. In this effort, we use Latour’s concept of ‘geostory’ to problematize the prevailing anthropocentrism in education. We discuss the power of experimentation by introducing a learning experiment that took place at a pop-up greenhouse in Helsinki. The idea was to encourage upper secondary geography students to playfully discard their human perspective and study the city from the viewpoint of plants: to probe the presumed human/nature divide through brief but moving encounters with ‘others’. We argue that through affective encounters with nonhuman others, the Earth speaks: it tells stories with us. If humans let themselves be addressed by these encounters, geostories can temporarily re-place human-centred narrative storytelling practices (histories), voiced by the modernist ‘I’, and generate alternative forms of knowledge that emerge from our belonging together. These stories emerging from geographical experimentation entail potential to cultivate both knowing and care that exceed the human.

Telling stories to understand research impact: narratives from the Lenfest Ocean Program

AbstractFor almost 20 years, the Lenfest Ocean Program has funded research projects around the world to generate information that managers, policymakers, and communities can use to develop solutions to ocean and coastal threats. To assess our grantmaking, we wanted to understand whether our philanthropic contribution has had an impact both inside and outside of academic circles. We found that narrative storytelling, as an alternative to a formal analysis, allowed us to explore the different dimensions of research impact, such as how scientific information can prompt progress toward sustainable management or policy change, how a research project’s structure can facilitate impact, and how building relationships and trust among project participants throughout a project may increase the use of future research results. Both the process of documenting the activities and events that resulted from funded projects from various perspectives and the writing of the story itself, helped us understand how science was or wasn’t used. By sharing what we have learned about projects that successfully informed management decisions as well as projects that fell short of their goals, we hope to shed light on the complex relationship between science and environmental decision-making through the lens of research impact.

Narrative self-recreation in virtual reality

The narrative essence of human nature is that humans are storytellers, and this ability helps to constitute our identities. Challenges that disrupt this innate ability are adverse events that affect the human perception of the world and undermine the meaning one finds in reality. Such events might range from short-term stressors to long-term testing conditions such as pandemics. Tools for overcoming these negative effects and for achieving self-preservation might be sought in individual storytelling abilities in relation to self-constitution and identification. An example of an interactive digital narrative medium that provides a platform for such expression of complex issues is virtual reality (VR), which has been used as a visual narrative storytelling tool for decades. This study sets the notion of trauma in a new light, as a break in the individual story used to explain one’s life and as a story to be intertwined with and re-adapted to one’s overall lifetime. In the healthcare context, this experience can be most effectively presented in VR because it offers added meaning, potential choices, closure, and resolution as methods of utilization. Therefore, VR can be seen not only as a medium whereby traumatic events can be processed but also as an alternative viewpoint of the goal of self-(re)creation. This research discusses a theoretical proposal for ways of playing with self-construction mechanisms in the context of an immersive VR environment to create more opportunities to change one’s narrative and, hence, one’s real-life story.

'Never once was I thinking the c-word': Parent perspectives on the facilitators and barriers to getting a childhood cancer diagnosis.

To describe the facilitators and barriers of getting from 'something's not right' to a childhood cancer diagnosis from the perspective of parents living in the United States of America. It is common for families to experience long trajectories from when they first notice symptoms to receiving a childhood cancer diagnosis. Understanding this trajectory within the social and cultural contexts of the United States healthcare system is the first step in developing strategies for reducing this timeframe and mitigating some of the psychosocial impact for parents in receiving a childhood cancer diagnosis. This study examines the interpretations and meanings parents attributed to their child's symptoms, their decisions regarding seeking medical care, interactions with healthcare providers and the time course of events. An inductive qualitative inquiry. In-depth, semi-structured interviews with 55 participants representing 39 unique cases of childhood cancer were conducted. Data were analysed using an inductive thematic approach. COREQ guidelines were followed. Participants described multiple barriers and facilitators in their path to receiving a childhood cancer diagnosis. Facilitators included noticing something 'wasn't right' and physician in agreement that symptoms were unusual; acute symptoms requiring action; advocating for a diagnosis; and obtaining a second opinion. Barriers included parents having to interpret symptoms in the context of daily life; physician dismissiveness even when symptoms persisted; and not feeling they could question their physician's assessment. Families experience multiple facilitators and barriers in their trajectory to receiving a childhood cancer diagnosis. Understanding the path to diagnosis from the parent perspective may increase opportunities for shared decision-making. Clinician educational modules that include family perspectives may improve patient/parent-provider relationships. Participants described their family's cancer journey through narrative storytelling. Participants had the opportunity to review and make edits to their transcript.

Between the Sacred and the Profane: The Works and Days of Lee Breuer

Between the Sacred and the Profane: The Works and Days of Lee Breuer

Same storm, different boat: The global impact of COVID-19 on palliative care.

ObjectiveThe COVID‐19 pandemic has had a complex and profound impact on the provision of palliative care globally. To support learning from palliative care providers and researchers worldwide, the Education Subcommittee of International Psycho‐Oncology Society (IPOS) Palliative Care Special Interest Group developed a webinar with presentations by and discussion with eight international palliative care leaders.MethodsPresentations were content rich; the speakers used both quantitative (e.g., sharing recent statistical findings) and qualitative (e.g., narrative storytelling, anecdotal experiences) approaches to portray the effect of COVID‐19 in their region. Subsequent to the webinar, the committee collectively identified five themes conveyed by the presenters through consensus.ResultsThe themes included: (1) altered accessibility to palliative care, with socio‐economic status impacting virtual health availability; (2) reduced opportunities to preserve dignity, as survival has been prioritized over preserving the humanity of patients and their loved ones; (3) complicated grief and bereavement arising from social distancing requirements; (4) greater awareness of the importance of sustaining health provider well‐being; and (5) the development of valuable innovations across nations, institutions, disciplines, and communities.ConclusionsOverall, the webinar facilitated valuable connection for global learning and identified opportunities for research and clinical interventions. In an ongoing crisis that has exacerbated isolation, we will need to continue to learn and lean on one another as a global community to navigate ongoing challenges of the COVID‐19 pandemic.

“It’s a radical decision not to use words”: Partnering with wordless picture books to enhance reading and writing

In using wordless picture books, teachers enhance the reading experience while fostering, nurturing, and broadening students’ reading and writing skills. Wordless picture books are accessible to all students. They encourage and require readers to slow down as they inhabit and comprehend the story told through art, symbolism, and images. Picture books often carry a stigma that they are for students in elementary grades and certainly not for young adolescents. However, many recent wordless picture books are multifaceted, thought-provoking, and galvanizing, making them perfect for an older audience. How can middle school educators bring these books into their classrooms in positive, meaningful, and inspiring ways? This article offers the rationale for partnering with wordless picture books to prompt creative writing, enhance vocabulary, increase background knowledge, foster comprehension, and elevate visual literacy. Coupled with recommended titles of wordless picture books for adolescents, an instructional strategy will demonstrate to students how to slow down, savor, and interpret both art and narrative storytelling.

Fuzzy cognitive mapping and photovoice: A pilot of a novel participatory methodology for addressing equity in community resilience research

ABSTRACT This manuscript introduces a novel participatory mixed methods approach that combines fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) and photovoice. This pilot is designed to explore the possibilities for this mixed methodology to address two key gaps in the community resilience literature: (1) narrow focus on disaster-based or acute resilience and (2) lack of historically marginalized voices. This work was conducted in a rural, Black, Southern community. This pilot study suggests that while the proposed method does allow for the prioritization of marginalized voices and for a systems level approach to non-disaster resilience building; the FCM/photovoice combination presents limitations in interpretation for non-discrete decision-making. This method can be overwhelming for participants. Further research is needed to refine the protocol for its use in multiple decision-making processes within larger local phenomenon. Additionally, the combination of narrative storytelling and empirical analysis presents a unique opportunity for informing policy. This work is part of a larger project focused on the linkages between food environment, health, and general community resilience (Mann et al., 2020). It is important to emphasize that the purpose of this article is merely to present this method as an avenue for studying community resilience. A more robust analysis of the data collected as part of this study has been published elsewhere in more detail (Mann et al., 2020).

The power of narrative storytelling: How podcasts as an arts-based practice enhance solidarity and social activism in adult education

This article emerges from a podcast hosted by a Centre for Migration at a Canadian University in 2021. In this discussion, we explore how podcasts offer a unique and often under-researched arts-based medium that can be used as a form of creative expression to tell stories, build dialogue, and create solidarity. We argue that podcasts offer benefits and learning not only to the listeners but also to participants who are part of the creation process. Drawing upon direct quotes from the podcast and qualitative reflections from the podcast interviewees, this collaboratively written article examines how the podcast stimulates activism and access to deeper understandings and collectively made meanings around the lived experiences of migration. It sheds light upon the less-researched emotional and participatory dimensions of arts-based podcast-making, teaching, and research in adult education. We conclude that the podcast created spaces of disruption, public pedagogy, and praxis.

Border Crossings: the Role of Narrative Storytelling in the Professional Identity Development of Faculty of Color

Career success is associated with having an integrated professional identity, especially for teacher educators who play a vital role in the professional development of novice teachers. Yet, the unique professional needs of teacher educators themselves, especially faculty of color, are often times ignored at predominantly White teaching institutions. In this case study, we analyzed stories related to the professional experiences of teacher education faculty members who participated in a faculty learning community centered on oral storytelling. Our findings indicate that for faculty of color, the process of developing professional identities involved crossing cultural borders, establishing credibility, and redefining themselves to reclaim a sense of professional agency. Faculty learning communities that focus on storytelling have the potential to be an effective approach for faculty development, not previously reported in the literature.

Как кино меняет социальную реальность: the social impact entertainment

Introduction.The article deals with the analysis of media concepts that describe, justify and reinforce the social influence of the film content. Cinema can change not only social psychology, but directly determine social action, just as advertising determines consumer behavior. Theoretical analysis. The author examines the theoretical and practical origins of the concept of “social impact entertainment”, starting with the theoretical generalizations of M. Sabido and his experience in introducing the concept of “Entertainment-Education” into the production of commercial melodramatic series. The author pays special attention to the rethinking of the Sabido methodology by the American non-profit organization Population Media Center and its modernization. She establishes a range of social problems for which the PMC methodology is effective: prevention and treatment of socially significant diseases, birth control, treatment of addictions, reduction of discriminatory behavior. The structure of the research cycle accompanying the development and distribution of media content produced according to the “social impact entertainment” model leads to a synergy of efforts of higher education, academic researchers, film business, experts and masters of the film industry. Conclusions. The author comes to the conclusion that in the conditions of hybrid media consumption, the “social impact entertainment” model goes beyond the boundaries of cinema and is applied to the development and promotion of content of all mass digital media of an entertainment nature. Documentaries, video content, computer games, streams, TV shows use direct motivation of recipients to be included in specific types of social actions. The integration of ad mechanics into the storytelling narrative of digital content solves a wide range of problems related to social engagement, from adaptation in social movement communities to overcoming fears of novelty.

Innovations in education: A prospective study of storytelling narratives to enhance hepatitis C virus knowledge among substance users.

BACKGROUNDEven though substance users have the highest hepatitis C virus (HCV) burden, many lack knowledge about the infection. Lack of knowledge is an important obstacle to pursuing HCV care. Although printed materials are conventionally utilized to disseminate HCV-related knowledge, narrative story-telling videos may be an alternative. Data are extremely limited, however, in the ability of storytelling videos to increase HCV knowledge among substance users. In this study, we hypothesized that a story-telling narrative video would increase substance user’s immediate and 1-month HCV-related knowledge compared to a printed format.AIMTo assess immediate and 1-month HCV-related knowledge retention among substance users comparing education delivered via a storytelling narrative video compared to a printed format.METHODSWe conducted a prospective matched, case-control study among substance users actively prescribed buprenorphine enrolled from two sites. The intervention site received the video and the control site, the brochure. Participants (n = 176) were matched on age, gender, and race. We obtained extensive patient and stakeholder input on the video’s design, validated the video’s content, and developed a recruitment plan to guide participant enrollment. Knowledge was assessed by administration of a 25-item instrument immediately before, immediately after, or one month after the intervention. Data were analyzed using nonparametric and generalized linear mixed-effects models. RESULTSWe recruited a total of 176 substance users, 90 and 86 individuals, from each site, respectively. One-month follow up occurred in 92% and 94% of enrollees in the control and intervention groups, respectively. In comparison with the pre-intervention scores, immediate knowledge recall increased significantly for both the intervention (P < 0.0001) and control (P < 0.0001) groups. Multivariate modeling revealed a significant improvement in HCV-related knowledge and retention (P = 0.033) among participants who viewed the storytelling video. CONCLUSIONStorytelling narratives emphasizing HCV education appear to be an effective method to increase HCV-related knowledge among substance users. They should become an educational cornerstone to promote HCV management among this population.

Innovations in education: A prospective study of storytelling narratives to enhance hepatitis C virus knowledge among substance users

Innovations in education: A prospective study of storytelling narratives to enhance hepatitis C virus knowledge among substance users

Living Kidney Donation Stories and Advice Shared Through a Digital Storytelling Library: A Qualitative Thematic Analysis

Rationale & ObjectiveDespite the development of numerous educational interventions, there has been limited change in actual living donor kidney transplant (LDKT) rates over time. New strategies, such as the inclusion of patient stories in patient education, show promise to inspire more people to donate kidneys. This study identified the challenges faced, coping strategies used, and advice shared by transplant donors and recipients.Study DesignQualitative thematic analysis.Setting & ParticipantsOne hundred eighteen storytellers across the United States and Canada, including 82 living donors and 36 kidney recipients of living donor transplants who shared their stories on the Living Donation Storytelling Project (explorelivingdonation.org), an online digital storytelling platform and library.Analytical ApproachA poststorytelling survey assessed participant demographics. Two coders conducted tool-assisted (Dedoose v.8.3.35) thematic analysis on narrative storytelling videos and transcripts.ResultsStorytellers were predominantly White (79/118, 66.95%), female (76/118, 64.41%), and non-Hispanic (109/118, 92.37%) with college/vocational education (50/118, 42.37%). Common themes were found related to living donation challenges for donors and recipients (eg, the fear of not being able to complete the LDKT process, of unsupportive family or rejected donation requests, and of unknown or adverse surgical outcomes and graft rejection) and recommended coping strategies (eg, seeking LDKT information, using prayer, and relying on a support network). Recipients provided advice that included being proactive and staying hopeful, whereas donors recommended seeking support, researching LDKT to comprehensively learn, and building a community of support.LimitationsLimited representation of diverse demographics.ConclusionsAlthough supplementary to traditional education about LDKT, digital storytelling provides a source of peer support that can enhance the experience of donors and recipients and encourage autonomy and self-management after transplant.

Creating new climate stories: Posthuman collaborative hope and optimism

This paper considers an evolving project about climate change that will explore using collaborative creative writing strategies to emotionally support and engage writers, primarily focusing on how narratives of hope and optimism might counter affective responses of anxiety, and the resultant solipsistic inertia or surrender. We ask: what role could collaborative fiction play in helping to create positive futures that emotionally strengthen us to manage what may come and what already is? We outline the inspiration and background to our project and begin to theorise justification for applying posthuman approaches to the question of reimagining climate fiction. We review a number of collaborative climate change projects located outside of traditional writing but still drawing on narrative storytelling, and consider how our project – which focuses on genre fictions – might add to the horizon point; one that is not delusional, but also does not lead to dystopian despair.

Perspectives of 360-Degree Cinematic Virtual Reality: Interview Study Among Health Care Professionals.

BackgroundThe global market for medical education is projected to increase exponentially over the next 5 years. A mode of delivery expected to drive the growth of this market is virtual reality (VR). VR simulates real-world objects, events, locations, and interactions in 3D multimedia sensory environments. It has been used successfully in medical education for surgical training, learning anatomy, and advancing drug discovery. New VR research has been used to simulate role-playing and clinical encounters; however, most of this research has been conducted with health professions students and not current health care professionals. Thus, more research is needed to explore how health care professionals experience VR with role-playing and clinical encounters.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to explore health care professionals’ experiences with a cinematic VR (cine-VR) training program focused on role-playing and clinical encounters addressing social determinants of health, Appalachian culture, and diabetes. Cine-VR leverages 360-degree video with the narrative storytelling of cinema to create an engaging educational experience.MethodsWe conducted in-depth telephone interviews with health care professionals who participated in the cine-VR training. The interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. A multidisciplinary team coded and analyzed the data using content and thematic analyses with NVivo software.ResultsWe conducted 24 in-depth interviews with health care professionals (age=45.3, SD 11.3, years; n=16, 67%, women; n=22, 92%, White; and n=4, 17%, physicians) to explore their experiences with the cine-VR training. Qualitative analysis revealed five themes: immersed in the virtual world: seeing a 360-degree sphere allowed participants to immerse themselves in the virtual world; facilitated knowledge acquisition: all the participants accurately recalled the culture of Appalachia and listed the social determinants of health presented in the training; empathized with multiple perspectives: the cine-VR provided a glimpse into the real life of the main character, and participants described thinking about, feeling, and empathizing with the character’s frustrations and disappointments; perceived ease of use of cine-VR: 96% (23/24) of the participants described the cine-VR as easy to use, and they liked the 360-degree movement, image resolution, and sound quality but noted limitations with the buttons on the headsets and risk for motion sickness; and perceived utility of cine-VR as a teaching tool: participants described cine-VR as an effective teaching tool because it activated visual and affective learning for them.ConclusionsParticipants emphasized the realism of the cine-VR training program. They attributed the utility of the cine-VR to visual learning in conjunction with the emotional connection to the VR characters. Furthermore, participants reported that the cine-VR increased their empathy for people. More research is needed to confirm an association between the level of immersion and empathy in cine-VR training for health care professionals.

Semantic flow and its relation to controlled semantic retrieval deficits in the narrative production of people with aphasia

Aphasia has had a profound influence on our understanding of how language is instantiated within the human brain. Historically, aphasia has yielded an in vivo model for elucidating the effects of impaired lexical-semantic access on language comprehension and production. Aphasiology has focused intensively on single word dissociations. Yet, less is known about the integrity of combinatorial semantic processes required to construct well-formed narratives. Here we addressed the question of how controlled lexical-semantic retrieval deficits (a hallmark of aphasia) might compound over the course of longer narratives. We specifically examined word-by-word flow of taxonomic vs. thematic semantic distance in the storytelling narratives of individuals with chronic post-stroke aphasia (n = 259) relative to age-matched controls (n = 203). We first parsed raw transcribed narratives into content words and computed inter-word semantic distances for every running pair of words in each narrative (N = 232,490 word transitions). The narratives of people with aphasia showed significant reductions in taxonomic and thematic semantic distance relative to controls. Both distance metrics were strongly predictive of offline measures of semantic impairment and aphasia severity. Since individuals with aphasia often exhibit perseverative language output (i.e., repetitions), we performed additional analyses with repetitions excluded. When repetitions were excluded, group differences in semantic distances persisted and thematic distance was still predictive of semantic impairment, although some findings changed. These results demonstrate the cumulative impact of deficits in controlled word retrieval over the course of narrative production. We discuss the nature of semantic flow between words as a novel metric of characterizing discourse and elucidating the nature of lexical-semantic access impairment in aphasia at multiword levels.

131 Healing the Community: Lessons Learned from VaccinateLA, USCs Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Los Angeles Neighborhoods of Color

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: To increase vaccination rates in Black and Latino communities, specifically in South LA and the Eastside of LA. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Multimedia campaign combined with vaccine navigation and assistance, led by the SC CTSI and conducted by an interdisciplinary team from 14 schools at USC and CHLA, &gt;160 community partners. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: VaccinateLA was a highly interdisciplinary and multifaceted project that demonstrated increased vaccination rates in Black and Latino communities in South LA and Eastern part of LA. We vaccinated over 1000 people, facilitated vaccines for almost 10k people and reached 1.37M people through our digital campaign. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: We have used community vaccine navigators, pop-up clinics, narrative storytelling and other unique approaches to encourage vaccine uptake in communities of color. We plan to expand activities to parents and children in these communities, encourage booster uptake, and evaluate and disseminate the program widely.

The practices of radical refusal in biblical feminist interpretation and black study

Gender-specific frameworks detect androcentrism in biblical texts and create a methodology and a reading practice of reading the stories of women not only as by-products of their environments or religious figures but also humanises them through radical forms of storytelling. The method is followed through by recovery and revisionist readings. These modes of interpretation and examination amongst many (i.e. literary, social and historical) aim to retrieve and revive women, their stories, ways of being and living and experiences from the claws of redactional and ideological criticism and conventional theological constructs of meaning, which subsidise their erasure. It is the contention here that cinematic narrative storytelling of women’s stories, experiences and ways of being both in antiquity and contemporary should not be embraced as merely accidental. Literal archives about women’s lives and experiences should be engaged alongside fictional and religious narratives. These narratives are all encompassing as they are observed through the lens of othering as examined through the prism of what Magubane calls ‘social relations, rather than psychological dispositions only’ as determinative factors of how bodies are seen and perceived and not only as rhetorical devices. Therefore, this article sets out to be a reading that traces methodology and integrates critical fabulation as a possibility of engagement from critical race theory into the Old Testament.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article sets to create a discourse between methodologies in Old Testament Theology, biblical feminist ideologies, using critical race theory as interdisciplinary focus, critical fabulation, cinematic narrative analysis as conceptual frameworks in an effort to add to the arsenal of disobedient epistemes.

Creating loyalty: Communication practices in the European and Inter-American human rights regimes

AbstractThis article investigates how the European and Inter-American human rights regimes have developed communication practices to create loyalty. It argues that communication departments exercise essential functions, in particular by creating diffuse support for international courts. By relying on theoretical analyses developed by Albert O. Hirschman and David Easton, it identifies how international courts can create loyalty through, first, fostering awareness about the existence of the court among the general public, and, second, the establishment of supportive communities around the court through shared practices. By drawing on semi-structured interviews, the comparative analysis of the European and Inter-American human rights regime illustrates both the professionalization of communication actors and the evolution of specific communication strategies in times of backlash. The empirical insights derived from semi-structured interviews with communication officials highlight how they have succeeded in expanding their audiences, but struggle with activating communities of practice. Ultimately, the rise of visual media formats and story-telling narratives might be the most promising tool to portray a more positive and engaging image of the institution.