Dr Sarah Telfer
Associate TIRI Professor in Education
Lead for Initial Teacher Education 14+ FES Programmes;
EdD;MA TESOL; BA (Hons) Theatre Studies; PGCE, FHEA
What’s Your Story?
This blog explores experiential storytelling as a powerful tool for enhancing learners’ communication and employability skills. It outlines a small scale qualitative research study in which trainee teachers were encouraged to use Pebble Pad as a digital platform to aid reflection through the use of storytelling.
Why use Storytelling as a pedagogic tool?
Storytelling as a valuable pedagogic practice is supported by a strong and growing body of evidence. Gibson (2012), Couros et al. (2013), de Jager et al. (2017) and Kosara and Mackinlay (2013) identify storytelling as a key element in teaching and learning. Storytelling develops cognitive and emotive skills within complex social networks, promoting personal and linguistic integration through observation and participation (Craig et al., 2001). Storytelling necessarily creates connections with others. It involves cognitive, social, and emotional skills such as creativity, critical thinking, and communication (Coursera, 2023).
Storytelling for Employability
HEIs need to adjust their focus on employability skills in response to Condition B3 set out by the Office for Students’ (OfS) regulatory framework, requiring HE Initial Teacher Education (ITE) providers to ‘deliver successful outcomes’ for learners that are recognised and valued by employers. Storytelling classroom activities and story action research projects provide rich and positive environments for learners to practise such employment skills by developing interpersonal fluency, digital literacy, and sensitive collaboration with others.
The Storytelling Research Project
Our study operates at the intersection of experiential learning and reflective storytelling. The research aims were 1) to enhance trainee teachers’ wider skills and digital literacy in preparation for future employment; 2) to inform experiential reflection on professional practice with regard to embedding employability skills within ITE 14+ Programmes; 3) to meet the OfS B3 Conditions. These aims are compressed in the overarching project question: ‘How can storytelling be utilised creatively to prepare trainee teachers for employment in the Further Education and Skills Sector?’
Storytelling as a reflective tool for practice creates opportunities for trainees to immerse themselves in real-world scenarios. Experiential learning through storytelling provides trainees with mechanisms to reflect and record their personal journey on the programme while sharing their ability to adapt to new situations, make informed decisions, and navigate uncertainty. These skills not only enhance employability but empower them to be more effective teaching practitioners.
Trainee teachers evidenced their professional competences and meet the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) standards using an online electronic portfolio called Pebble Pad. This is a digital platform for submitting their individual storytelling tasks and reflecting on their professional journey through the use of creative storytelling. The study involved two stages spanning two semesters. In stage one (semester one), the trainees were encouraged to use alternative and varied forms of story forms such as: digital storyboards or video logs/blogs, a range of crafts, pictures/photographs/drawings, and/or poetry/song.
Stage one was designed to encourage trainees’ open ended creative story ideas and formats to express their individual experiential story journeys on the course, reflecting their teaching and learning experiences, wider skill building and subject specialist knowledge. In stage two (semester two), trainee teachers were asked to attend a one-to-one online discussion to share their rationale behind their creative choices for storytelling modes and how they had chosen to convey their teacher training journey. More importantly, they were asked to consider how they might showcase these creative skills to enhance future employment opportunities as a unique selling point (USP).
Results from the data analysis will be analysed at the end of semester two in 2024 and presenting as a research paper at the beginning of the new academic year. Preliminary findings from a pilot study indicate positive impacts on trainee teachers’ pedagogic practice and preparation for employment, with increased confidence in using storytelling as a USP at interview. The data highlights participants’ diverse creativity in devising a range of storytelling resources to both reflect their journey on the course, and as a pedagogic tool in their subject specialist area.
It is hoped this research project will offer an interactive exploration of storytelling as a pedagogic tool to enhance trainee teachers’ employability skills through creative storytelling and digital technologies, incorporating a range of digital storytelling examples to understand best how storytelling might inform good practices and boost employability outcomes.
For blog readers discussion:
What’s your story? How do you use storytelling in your pedagogic practice to engage your learners in effective communication? How might you use storytelling activities to enhance learners’ employability skills?
Biography
Dr Sarah Telfer is an Associate TIRI (Teaching Intensive Research Informed) Professor and Researcher at the University of Bolton and Programme Lead for initial Teacher Education (ITE) Further Education and Skills programmes.
Research interests include the use of storytelling as a pedagogic tool; assessment literacy and cross faculty development research. Additional interests include university wide staff training and continuing professional development and Masters and Doctorate supervision.
Couros, A., Montgomery, K., Tupper, J., Hildebrandt, K., Naytowhow, J. and Lewis, P.J., (2013) Storying treaties and the treaty relationship: Enhancing treaty education through digital storytelling. International Review of Qualitative Research, 6(4), pp.544-558.
Coursera for Business. (2023) The Job Skills of 2023 -The Fastest-Growing Skills for Businesses, Governments, and Higher Education Institutes. Available from:eBook-Job-Skills-of-2023.pdf (coursera-for-business.org) html [accessed 27th January 2023].
Craig, S., Hull, K., Haggart, A.G. and Crowder, E., (2001) Storytelling addressing the literacy needs of diverse learners. Teaching exceptional children, 33(5), pp.46-51.
de Jager, A., Fogarty, A., Tewson, A., Lenette, C. and Boydell, K.M., Digital Storytelling in Research: A Systematic. Completion Technique in Narrative Text. PIONEER: Journal of Language and Literature, 12(2), p.192.
Gibson, R. (2012) 3 reasons to master the art of storytelling. [Online] Available from: http://www.inc.com/riley-gibson/3-reasons-every-start-upshould-tell-more-stories.html .[Accessed 27th January 2023].
Moll,L. et al, (1992) Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms, Theory Into Practice, 31:2, 132-141, DOI: 10.1080/00405849209543534
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