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Navigating Narrative and Analysis: Students' Mediation of Historical Content through Storytelling

Authors :
Björn Kindenberg
Source :
Language and Education. 2025 39(1):91-110.
Publication Year :
2025

Abstract

This study delves into the complex relationship between storytelling and historical understanding. Focused on how lower-secondary students employ narrative discourse in writing, it examines the extent to which their storytelling aids or limits historical comprehension. Drawing on systemic-functional linguistics and history education theories, the study highlights that while narratives might encourage personalized perspective-taking, thus potentially undermining objective historical analysis, they also reveal a more complex interplay between narrative form and historical insight than previously recognized. Through a comparative evaluation of student texts, it explores how certain types of narratives--descriptive, evocative, and emotive--interact with different foci of historical understanding. The analysis underscores the challenge of integrating broader historical analysis within personal narratives but also showcases successful examples of this integration. The article proposes strategies for educators to leverage storytelling more effectively, emphasizing the need for linguistic scaffolding to enhance students' historical narratives.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
0950-0782 and 1747-7581
Volume :
39
Issue :
1
Database :
ERIC
Journal :
Language and Education
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
EJ1455652
Document Type :
Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2024.2362907