In this third pillar of the framework, the focus is on ecosystem elements that make all members of the learning community feel connected and supported by using the power of storytelling to ensure they feel heard and understood. Storytelling is a concept that has been widely studied across many disciplines from information science to civic participation. Early in my Fulbright inquiry, I spoke to artist Eleni Glinou about meaning-making and the power of storytelling for self-reflection. We also spoke about the generational trauma throughout Greek history and the impact of that trauma on society.
It is impossible to live in Greece and not feel the power of storytelling. From the Greek myths to Homer's epic Odyssey and the heroes of the 1821 revolution, these stories and characters come alive here. Furthermore, the national curriculum values the narrative of ancient Greece as the birthplace of democracy.
In 2022 Greek teachers face the challenge of making meaning not of ancient history but of a post-pandemic world. Schools are performing the invisible role of educators everywhere: healing, repairing, and strengthening their communities.

Why healing?

In 2020 Froma Walsh described the ways families are multi-stressed. Two years later her list is still so relevant: Loss, tragic death, threatened loss, loss of physical contact with families and social networks, job loss, uncertain financial security and livelihood, loss of their old way of life, threatened loss of hopes and dreams for the future, a loss of sense of normalcy, shattered assumptions about life, ambiguity, uncertainty and depression
But is healing this trauma the job of education? The answer lies in belonging. Neither teachers nor students can feel like they belong when they are in pain, grieving, or anxious. A mindset shift is needed to help facilitate community healing. We have all experienced some kind of loss and pandemic life is now the defining moment of our students’ lives. Fortunately, Walsh reminds us that a holistic approach is possible. Our western view is solution-focused. We hope for an “aha” moment or program that can solve a problem with a clear solution but “loss is not a problem to solve” (Walsh, 2020).
Reflection Check-in: When you see Walsh's list of losses and threats, check in with your body and mind. How do you feel?

What role can schools play in healing?

We cannot ask any teacher who is not trained in therapy and psychology to do this work alone. It is not the role of the teacher to be a therapist but we can apply some concepts: 
  1. “Grieving is not in synch.” All children experienced some kind of pandemic loss. How they express it or experience the loss will vary by culture, family and other factors. Be prepared to be tolerant of these differences.
  2. ​Weaving mindset. Think about balancing how we tell stories of uncertainty, collectively process what that uncertainty means, and model how to look forward. Adapting to what we lost isn’t about “getting over it” or “bouncing back.” It is about looking forward while weaving in acceptance of our loss.
  3. Helplessness and confusion may be universal childhood experiences because of the pandemic, but we can help children heal by telling stories of resilience. Greek students learn many stories of resilience and around the world this theme is universal. Through storytelling, we can transform our students' memories of helplessness and confusion into a resilient mindset. They need explicit support in shifting their thinking from surviving and coping to adapting and finding ways to thrive. In Heraklion we experienced an earthquake simulator at the Natural History Museum of Crete. Earthquakes cannot be predicted but they are a fact of life in many countries of the Mediterranean region. An EU partnership helped fund this simulator and exhibit to help children understand what an earthquake will feel like so they are prepared and can respond with calm and resilience.
  4.  Community healing requires us to learn the importance of interdependence. As teachers, we need to rely on each other and we should model for our students how we ask for support.
  5. Work with students to be mindful of a positive outlook that points to hope and focuses on possibilities (Walsh, 2020).
Reflection Check-in: Which of these five steps resonates with you?

What is storytelling?

Folklorist and poet Richard Stone describes storytelling as expressing who we are and how we fit in the world. Maeder, a sociologist, states that we see our lives in narrative form (2018). Storytelling teaches without preaching (Bedford, 2001). It helps us imagine another time and place. Storytelling is social-based informal learning (Kim & Ball, 2006) that creates critical thinking. Rakena (2019) asks us to rethink storytelling in this digital age. What role does a meme play in creating connecting, sharing culture and conveying meaning? Digital storytelling is a medium that advertisers use with great skill to influence our behavior. Learning to think critically about storytelling  and allowing learners to “carve out time to express what makes them distinct” is a twenty-first century necessity (Stone, 2005).
​Reflection Check-in: How often do we think critically about the stories that we are exposed to in advertising each day?

How do we tell stories?

Stone argues that every person must find their stage. From a hairdresser to a coffee shop barista, anyone can find their place to shine and be a storyteller. Storytelling in a school ecosystem can be helping children see their strengths to begin to tell their story. At the James Hill School in Plaka and the Second Chance School in Piraeus teachers write a letter to each student at the end of the term highlighting strengths and showing appreciation for growth. 
Storytelling through sharing builds connection and strengthens community by grounding participants in shared common experiences that foster understanding (Maeder, 2018). From a learning science perspective, knowledge is built on the foundation of our prior knowledge and personal experience, but to construct knowledge learners need to not just contribute their knowledge, opinions, and perspectives but also take others' perspectives into account, refer to each other, build on ideas (Kress, 2016).
​Reflection Check-in: You are a voice in each of your students' stories. What do you want that voice to say?

Listening builds understanding and empathy

The science behind listening to stories tells us that the “mirror neurons” in the listener reflect the same emotion patterns as the brain of the storyteller (McDowell, 2021). “Exchanging stories helps us contextualize and participate in a web of relationships,” McDowell writes. Exchange and participation factors strongly into an individual's sense of belonging. Bedford (2001) argues that sharing our stories helps us find “universal in the particular” while Stone brings us back to the healing power of listening. He argues that we have to “listen deeply to find poetry in every day life,” which grants us a new way to see our self, makes us more conscious of beauty, heightens our awareness, and opens us up to new ways of being. Nikos, a 4th grade teacher, focuses on culture in his classroom, weaving explorations of regional celebrations throughout the curriculum. This builds belonging in his class and he extends this belonging into the community.
​Reflection Check-in: What "poetry in every day life" have you experienced from listening?

Collective Meaning Making

Although meaning making may sound like a buzzword, it is an important part of repairing and strengthening community. The process of storytelling, sharing our personal or collective narratives, means opening up our story to allow an audience to help shape the narrative (Kim & Ball-Rocheach, 2006). Giving a voice to what we value and sharing with others what we enjoy and cherish allows us to find beauty and meaning in life (Stone). When Elissavet asks her students to envision an ideal school, their presentations speak to this aspect of storytelling. Meaning-making of the present and vision for the future can also be shaped by stories from history. Choices from the past help us reevaluate our actions today (Nabil, 2019). Whereas Brockway et al. (2019) argue that making meaning from sharing and listening allows us to create a new reality by offering us insight into our past self.
With a focus on storytelling in art therapy, these authors offer questions we can ask to strengthen belonging:
How do we foster an “open, non-judgmental environment?”
How do we “honor” each child as an expert on their present experience?
How can we create ALONGSIDE learners?
Finally, it's important to consider that giving students the opportunity to share and listen must be followed by an opportunity to channel the anxious energy that comes from reflection.
​Reflection Check-in: Meaning making happens in school constantly. How do you feel about mindfully meaning making?

Transformation is resilience & taking action forges hope for the future

The mindfulness that comes from listening, especially as we focus on healing community, will result in a need for creative expression. This may look like art - in many Greek schools the walls are adorned with beautiful murals that convey community values. However, it can also look like social action and community engagement. “Art acts as a meaning-making tool..because of its power to unite communities over shared goals and provide a common ground for action.” Therefore, producing art inspired by storytelling may be the end result, but it may also spur further transformation. In a Patras elementary school, students used art to express their thoughts on peace and war at an all-school assembly in response to the Russian attack on Ukraine. Kim and Ball-Rokeach (2006) found that boosting community civic engagement depends on having opportunities to be a neighborhood storyteller in an environment that sustains conversation. The structure of the Greek school day fosters this kind of network, with ten minute breaks between every class.
In neighborhoods this connectedness leads to civic responsibility and engagement:  "Storytelling creates conversations about who ‘we’ are–’our’ identities, desires and shared lived experiences–what our most important opportunities, obstacles, and issues are, and how/what we should do to address them” (Kim & Ball-Rokeach, 2006). When Julie helps sixth graders at a primary school in Zografu analyze a Hemingway’s short story about the Spanish Civil War, it leads to conversations about how Greek citizens feel about refugees. Identifying strengths builds the bridge between meaning-making and transformation. Through this cycle of reflecting, storytelling, listening, meaning-making and creative transformation the school community grows stronger and elements of belonging become more clear.
Reflection Check-in: What are your strengths? How do you tell your story to reflect those strengths?
Picture
Wishes for the new year at the James Hill School.
Picture
Nikos' class works together to write books about a variety of topics from happiness to cultural traditions. They help each other revise and improve their work.
Picture
Students at this Middle School collaborated to describe their ideal school. They feel that teachers need "patience, objectivity and will power."
Picture
This mural at an intercultural school tells a story of tolerance.
Picture
I wondered why Picasso's "Guernica" is so prominently featured in so many Greek schools from murals to coloring sheets. In this image a photo of the destruction from Nazi bombings in Heraklion, Crete, during WWII is spliced together with Picasso's depiction of the bombing of Guernica at the Historical Museum of Crete. This is meaning-making. Greek teachers also use this image to channel civic responsibility.
Picture
Students at the University Experimental Gymnasium in Patras collaborate on a Guernica mural.
Picture
An anti war banner outside an elementary school in the Agia Paraskevi neighborhood of Athens. Demands no Greek participation in the war in Ukraine and calls for peace.

Sources about storytelling and community meaning making

Abama, T. (1998) Storytelling as Inquiry in a Mental Hospital  Qualitative health research. Vol 8, no 6.
Arai, T., & Niyonzima, J. B. (2019). Learning together to heal: Toward an integrated practice of transpersonal psychology, experiential learning, and neuroscience for collective healing. Peace and Conflict Studies, 26(2), 1–26.
Bedford, L., (2001). Storytelling: The Real Work of Museums. Curator: The Museum Journal. Vol 44, 1, January 2001.
​Brockway, Z., et al., (2019) "Art as Meaning Making." LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations. 776.  https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/etd/776
Buendgens-Kosten, J. (2021). Digital Storytelling: Multimodal Meaning Making. Research-publishing.net. 
Chioneso, N. et al., (2020) Community healing and resistance through storytelling: A framework to address racial trauma in Africana communities. Journal of Black Psychology, 46(2-3)
Cress, U., Kimmerle, J., Collective Knowledge Construction.  International Handbook of the Learning Sciences, 2018.
Jean-Pierre, J. (2021) How African Nova Scotians envision culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogy as civic repair, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 42:8, 1153-1171, DOI: 10.1080/01425692.2021.1981247
Kim, Y., Ball-Rokeach, S., (2006) Community Storytelling Network Context, and Civic Engagement: A Mutlilevel Approach. Human Connection Research. 32 p. 411-439
Maeder, C. (2018) The Creative Process. A Case for Meaning-Making. Qualitative Sociology Review. Volume XIV Issue 4.
McDowell, K. (2021) Storytelling wisdom: Story, information and DIKW.  Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. (72) 1223-1233.
Nabil, G. (2019). Storytelling as a Tool for Social Development and Community Outreach in Museums International Journal of Heritage and Museum Studies, Article 8, Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 116-128.
Rakena, T. O. (2019). Tears of the Collective: Healing Historical Trauma through Community Arts. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 18(2), 130–146.
Shields, T. (2018). Collisions: History, home, and storytelling. Cultural Dynamics. Vol 30, 1-2
Stone, R. (2005) The healing art of storytelling: A sacred journey of personal discovery. Authors Choice Press, New York.
Walsh, F. (2020) Loss and Resilience in the Time of COVID-19: Meaning Making, Hope and Transcendence. Family Process. Vol 59, no 3. Family Process Institute.
Proudly powered by Weebly