Workshop: Working with narratives to strengthen children’s identities.
Connie Kock, Senior Lecturer
The following text served as a support to my 15 minute talk, so that my oral input consisted of the
talk plus the later discussion and answering questions.
I have thought a lot about how I can give you a short introduction to narrative theory and how you
will be asked in this workshop to work with a small segment of the theory available. As we do not
have children to work with, you will have to use each other – individually or in groups, using a
theme you have chosen yourselves and the tasks I have selected.
Workshop
Narrative cognition and construction is developed in a cultural space between the infant and its
caregivers. Typically, caregivers verbalize their interactions with children, when changing diapers.
We constructs and listen to narratives to make sense of our experiences and the experience of
others. Stories are told and shared as a reservoir of vicarious experience. Stories are mental time
travels in imaginary contexts, in different worlds, narrated from different perspectives.
Narratives provide us with a wider horizon, and allow us to identify with experiences of others and
to try to interpret and understand other minds, emotions and actions, and stories invite different
perspectives.
Small children appreciate repetitions, repeated interactions, plays, songs, etc.
Jerome Bruner:
To recapitulate, then a grasp of quotidian ´family drama´ comes first in a form of
praxis. The child, as we already know, soon masters the linguistic form for
referring to actions and their consequences as they occur. She learns soon after
that what you do is drastically affected by how you recount what you are doing,
will do, or have done. Narrating becomes not only an expository act but a
rhetorical one. Narrating becomes not only an expositor act but a rhetorical one1.
I think working with narratives is to make sense of everyday experience and of more crucial and
puzzling situations in relation to which narratives give us access to the past and the present, and to
our intentions, dreams and plans for the future.
Narrative theory can help to shed light on the lives of children and young people in a social
educational context, in the sense that a verbalisation of people's lives provides a specific input
which can help strengthen their sense of identity and self-esteem.
I will give a short lecture (introduction) 15min., then you have to work with yourselves in different
ways – how to work with stories if you have not tried it yourself
1
Bruner, Jerome. 1990.: Acts of Meaning. Harvard University Press. p.87
The narrative
To listen to somebody’s life story is to receive a gift.
And such personal gifts should be given freely and handled with respect and ethical care.
A situated text
The way we tell about ourselves and our lives vary a great deal according to the contextual
situation:
There is a difference between looking back at your childhood from when you are twenty years old,
fifty years old or seventy years old
A very different kind of narrative is displayed when you enter a new friendship or another
relationship and start telling the person you’ve come to appreciate about the past you didn’t have in
common in order to share past experience and get to know each other better – here the purpose of
the narratives will be to share the world with each other.
1. question
What is the first thing you remember from your childhood?
(The students will be given 10 minutes to reflect and write their thoughts down, after which we
shall discuss how far back we can remember? Are we telling a narrative, or can we really remember
experiences from early childhoods; and can we practice trying to recollect further back than we
have done in this session today?).
Obviously, a narrative life-story interview is a situated text, influenced by the framing of its
production and by the cultural space created between the narrator and the listener. However, a
narrative interview differs from a qualitative or a semi-structured interview as the configuration of
meaning, the plot and the story line of the narrative is created by the narrator alone, without any
interruptions, or questioning on behalf of the interviewer until the end of story is clearly indicated
by the narrator. Thus, the co-construction of the narrative is not eliminated, but the narrator's line of
thought or line of telling is not led astray by the explicit interests of the interviewer during the time
of telling. What is told - or omitted, the sequence of episodes, the elaborations of detail or the brief
mentioning, chief points and weight of significance, all of which effects the configuration of
meaning - it is up to the narrator to decide within the situated context of telling.
However, we have been told by others before we even learn how to narrate ourselves.
In my dissertation with title: Life history narratives - a dissertation about lives stories and identity
in social pedagogical work I have used Daniel Stern who is born in 1934. He are a professor in
psychology and psychiatric and he had through the 80’ and 90’ been placed as a great capacity
regarding the children psychologies.
Stern write about The history of the world: Children among 3 – 4 years old:
It is the fifth self domain where the narrative ability establish is the child in able to tell stories about
own life in a modern as well as a history perspective, where the narrative structure have to be
learned and created in a interpersonally context. That will means that a dialog creates among the
child and the audience reaction and participation. Through those narratives among each self define
the child hers past life and created sin identity and through:
”By the words emergence will the child the be able to tell about own life story included all the abilities
as the story contains to be able to see “my self” in a different light. To telling my own story is not the
same in one form for thinking or talk. The narrative strategies means to interrupt a another line of thought
the problem solving and description. To tell your story involve the thinking of other people, as acting
individual with intentions and aim in life, which show in one and another causal connection with a
beginning, a middle and the end 2”
I think working with narratives is to make sense of every days experience and of more crucial and
puzzling situations, where narratives gives us access to the past and the present, and to our
intentions, dreams and plans for the future.
Our stories, also those of the past and the present, always reflect both the dialogical space and our
contemporary situation. A life story retold by the same person some times later could vary
considerably from the first telling if the situation had changed. Therefore, the story reflect the
attitudes, priorities and values of the time of the telling.
There is not one single true story. The best possible story is a story that makes sense to the teller,
story that makes her exclaim when confronted with the story; This is how I really felt, this is my
story, and I fell good having told it. This last point is important- the researcher should not put his
own scientific straw down the throat of informants just to get information of the personal. As Peter
Allheit wrote in his article: “In bezug auf ihr leben sind die befragten Experten – nicht du”.
This is why the narrative approach generates new kinds of knowledge, knowledge about how
individuals create meaning and coherence in their lives, or how they eventually fail to do this. Life
stories do not necessarily reveal historical truth in the empirical sense, but personal truth, meaning.
Sofia has told me in my dissertation:
2
Stern, Daniel, 1998: Barnets interpersonelle univers. Hans Reitzels Forlag. Side 183.
Sofia is 21 years old and se told me after the narrative interview:
I recommend that people, both young and the grown-up people work with there own life story.
You have to be prepared for the experience you maybe in the daily life you have forgotten. It is
hard work – you cry and you get a hard feeling in your heart, but there is no doubt that its
good, that your are thinking back and estimate on your own life and why my life seems to bee
as it is and which factors are determent for, the choices I have to take.
It is hard work, but for me the work with my life story have been the worth while.
I started my to interviews: What is the first thing you remember from your childhood?
Try to think back to what you remembered; was it easy?
Both of them are telling about the day they are moving to an institution. The plot in the stories is
about the different places they have been living and that they don't understand the moving from
place to place – nobody told them why they had to move.
The girl talks a lot about her mother, she is very good at telling her story in a narrative way.
The boy uses pictures to remind him of his childhood – and he is not able to use the narrative way.
He can't read or write: dyslectic.
Pedagogical implications
Accordingly, the development of narrative competences is of vital importance from a
psychological perspective. Narrative competence seems to facilitate autonoetic consciousness,
regulation of emotion, integration of mental states, understanding other minds, cohesion of
experience, identity work and the abilities to plan for the future.
The indispensable interpersonal cooperation in narrative development points to the
significance of implementing narratives in pedagogical practice in substantial ways.
Narratives should play a significant role in children's interactions with parents, caregivers and
educators.
Narrative competence has also been underlined from a learning perspective. Bruner (1996)
has strongly emphasized narrative competences regarding the abilities for reflection,
negotiation of meaning and metacognition. He stresses the importance of seeing different
perspectives. A central educational concern in a changing world "…will be how to create in the
young an appreciation of the fact that many worlds are possible, that meaning and reality are
created and not discovered, that negotiation is the art of constructing new meanings by which
individuals can regulate their relations with each other". (1986:149) The last quotation indicates the
issue of citizenship education. Marianne Horsdal has (Horsdal 2000, 2001, 2002) discussed the
significance of narrative competence regarding active, democratic citizenship, also in connection
with attentiveness and sensitivity towards different codes, open-mindedness, participation,
belonging and identity-work. Narrative competence can be encouraged, just as our narrative
abilities may deteriorate in an impoverished environment (Horsdal 2002). Poor narrative
competences entail difficulties when we are to make sense of our lives and the surrounding world.
And this may inhibit our ability to learn how to learn.
However, life-story work in a pedagogical context may be an equivocal enterprise when carried out
from too simplified assumptions. The suggestibility of the human mind must be considered as well
as the vulnerability of some people towards pressure. Any biographical narrative construction can
have an impact on later self-interpretations.
Bibliography
Alheit, Peter. 1993: Das narrative interview – eine Einführung. Arbejdstekster til
Voksenpædagogiks teoriudvikling. SFH, nr. 11 RUC.
Bruner, Jerome. 1986: Actual Minds, Possible World. Harvard University Press.
Bruner, Jerome. 1990: Act of meaning. Harvard University Press.
Bruner, Jerome. 1996: The culture of education. Harvard University Press.
Horsdal, Marianne. 1999:Livets fortællinger – en bog om livshistorier og identitet. Borgen.
Og andre arbejdspapirer uddelt af Marianne Horsdal.
Horsdal, Marianne. 2001: Democratic Citizenship and the Meeting of cultures in Schemmann and
Bron Jr, Adult Education and Democratic Citizenship IV. Krakow 2201
Horsdal, Marianne. 2002: Grundtvig Sokrates II – active Citizenship and the Non-formal Education,
Højskolernes Hus (www.højskolerne.dk)
life history and life story book in a social pedagogical work
I have talked about life history. Here I will tell about the life history book, where children’s and
peoples narratives can be placed in.
A life story book (or life book, as it is sometimes called) is an account of a child's life in words,
pictures, photographs and documents, made by the child with the help of a trusted adult.
Children who live with their birth families have the opportunity to know about their past and to
clarify past events in terms of the present. Children in care are often denied this opportunity. They
are separated from their birth families; they may have changed families, social workers, homes.
Their past may be lost, much of it even forgotten.
When children lose track of their past, they may well find it difficult to develop emotionally and
socially3. If adults cannot or do not discuss this past with them, it is reasonable for children to
suppose that it is very bad.
A life story book is an attempt to give back to the child in care his or her past life through the
gathering and discussion of the facts and people in that life and to help him or her to accept it, and
go forward into the future with this knowledge.
Most of children in care gain a great deal from talking about their past, present and future to a
sympathetic adult. Making a life story book with a child is a way of giving a structure to this talk.'
Children in care, whether they are in a children's home, with a foster parent, going to a permanent
new family or returning to their natural family, need to sort out why they are in care and why
various adults have let them down. We have often failed in the past to do this for children for
whom we have been responsible.
All children are entitled to an accurate knowledge of their past and their family. This is a right that
children who are secure in their families take for granted. The right of children in care to this
knowledge is important, not only for the sake of the children themselves, but also for their future
children.
Life story books have also been made by old people4 entering residential care to help give them a
sense of worth about themselves and to help others appreciate them as whole people.
3
Schwartz, Bente. 2001: Livshistorien – en erindringshåndbog. Aschenoug.
What do children get from making a life story book?
Working towards a life story book can increase a child's sense of self-worth. It is a sad truth that at
the back of the minds of nearly all children in care is the thought that they are worthless and
unlovable. They blame themselves for the actions of adults. If they have been abandoned, neglected
or injured by their parents or wider family, they are convinced that they brought it on themselves. A
life story book gives you the opportunity to show them why they should be proud of themselves,
and this positive attitude should run through the whole book. In talking about their natural parents,
for example, although you will tell them a suitably-worded version of the truth (however painful
that may be) about their family and why they are in care, it is important to stress the positive side.
You need to talk about their natural parents in non-judgemental terms. Perhaps you might say that
not everybody is good at being a parent, but that does not mean that they are bad in other respects.
When you have worked together on the book, you will feel much closer to the child. We ourselves
have found that memories of our own childhoods are always awoken. If we, too, have experienced
pain, we share this with the child - while always remembering whose story it is! Some people
make life story books with more than one child at a time, and some sharing of experiences without breaking confidences, of course - can make a child feel better. Thus a child can appreciate
that many people experience pain in their childhood and that the fault does not lie with them: they
need not feel guilt, as so many children. amazingly, do, for their parents' behaviour.
About identity
I talked about identity and narrative competence5 when we were talking about life history, but I will
say a little more about this.
A healthy sense of identity is vital to everybody. A poor sense of identity can disable children and
adults alike, and limit their ability to take on fresh challenges, such as moving into a new family. At
its worst a poor sense of identity can 'freeze' children so they have an over-investment in the past
and cannot move on to think about the future. It can also cause apathy and a depressed, fatalistic
outlook.
Dahl, Ove. 1999: Husker du? – Et forsøgs og udviklingsprojekt omkring anvendelse af erindringsaktiviteter, som
brugbar ældrepædagogisk metode indenfor pleje- og omsorgsområdet, bl.a. for demente. Nørrebro Erindringscenter.
Dansk Center for reminiscens. Pensionisternes Samvirke. Internet: www.reminiscens.dk
5
Berit Bae, Jerome Bruner, Daniela Cecchin, Athony Giddens, Kari Killén, Heinz Kohut, H. Rudolf Schaffer, Dion
Sommer, Daniel Stern m.fl.
4
Identity is a complex concept; it probably starts in individuals with the first separation of 'inside'
and 'outside' self at about six months. This creation of the idea of "self is crucial to healthy
development and where it is hindered by events and by other people who are important (like
mothers and fathers) not responding appropriately, severe problems can arise.
Whilst understanding 'self is difficult, particularly for children severed from their roots and without
a clear future, it is made easier by separating out some of the more easily definable parts and
discussing them openly with a child. One way of doing this is to talk about the past, the present and
the future.
The past is made up of places, significant dates and times, people, changes, losses or separations
and other events, both happy and sad, like illnesses, holidays and birthdays.
The present is made up of self-images, reactions to the past and issues like What am I doing here?
Where do I belong? How do others see me?
The future is made up of issues such as What shall I be? Where shall I live? What chances do I
have? What other changes will there be?
In making a life story book with a child, all these things can be raised in ways that feel natural to a
child. This will give you and the child opportunities to establish facts about the past and present and
go some way towards demystifying events and people in the child's life. Similarly, hopes and
doubts about the future can be raised and 'bridging' (linking the past to the future) into the new
family or situation can begin.
Thee are some rules you have to think about, just like in the narrative interwiev.
1. Never betray the child's confidences made to you.
2. Don’t avoid talking about things the child wants to talk about because they make you
uncomfortable.
3. Don’t put words into the child’s mouth.
4. Once you have taken on the making of life story book, you must not abandon the child
halfway through it and hope than someone else can complete your work. You should
continue with it until both of you agree it is time to end your regular sessions on it.
5. Never use the making of the book as either a prize or a punishment, but only as a normal
part of your life together.
Workshop
The narratives: a story about violence and threats.
We had a discussion and talked about this. And the participants on a course told us the story of
their lives, in preparation for meeting people at work who have threatened them.
There is project in Denmark which involves working with life stories with people who are:

suffering from arrested development;
Ramian, Knud, Jónas Güstafsson (Red.)1998: Liv I fokus – Det sindslidende menneske I
hverdagen. Systime.
 mentally retarded, mentally handicapped.
Rønn, Edith Mandrup. !996: En slags livshistorier, kapitel VI i De fattige i ånden. Museum
Tusculanums Forlag.
 residential home for children or young persons
Nielsen, Henrik Egelund (red) 2001: Så kommer du til et bedre sted… Samtaler med unge,
der har været anbragt på institution eller familiepleje om deres liv og om hvordan truede
børn og unge skal hjælpes. Forlaget Børn & Unge.